Not What You Think
by MissSadieKane
Summary: "I, Sirius Black, promise that I will write letters home to my little brother every day." But Sirius never did, and when his brother finally got to Hogwarts, the two had drifted so far apart they could hardly talk together without fighting. Ch2 rewrite.
1. Chapter 1: Not Mud People?

_Disclaimer: This story is written for entertainment purposes only. The only characters I own so far are Steph and Ryan._

_Summary: Almost all we know about Regulus Black from the Harry Potter books comes from Sirius and Kreacher. From what Sirius says, it is clear that his relationship with his brother was not a good one, so is what is said actually the truth? How well did he know his brother and did Regulus keep secrets from him? This tells the story of life in the Black family from Regulus's point of view from ages nine to twelve. First in series (next story is ages 13-16)._

_Authors Note: This story is AU because Narcissa and Andromeda are younger than their cannon ages because I wanted them to attend Hogwarts with Sirius and Regulus. I have also placed Andromeda in a different house to Narcissa to make the later plot work better. This first chapter is set around 1970, the spring before Sirius goes to Hogwarts. Bella is 18 nearly 19, Andromeda is 15, Sirius is 11, Narcissa is 10 and Regulus is 9. All nick names in this chapter are those used by Regulus, not by Sirius. The names change according to who is speaking._

**Chapter One: Not Mud People?**

I try not to react as Cissy's new shoes collide with my shin. I know it was her because she's trying to suppress a giggle, and Sirius can't reach. I don't want to admit it, but it actually hurts a lot. However, I know that if show any emotion at all, Mother will start screaming at me, or Bella will tease me forever about being a baby.

We are supposed to be sitting quietly at the dinner table, as Mother says it is a special occasion. We are celebrating my cousin's recent engagement to Rodolphus Lestrange. Bella doesn't actually like him that much…

"He's slow, ugly and has no heart whatsoever, but if he's pureblood and it stops my Mother complaining about me not finding a husband then he'll do," she had said to me once in private. I don't really like Lestrange either; once when I was four, he locked me in a cupboard with a Boggart, which turned into a dead Sirius and Narcissa with blood flowing everywhere. I still have nightmares about it sometimes.

While Bella is pulling her "can you please just shut up" face as my Aunt rants on and on about Lestrange being a 'respectable pureblood', Andromeda (otherwise known as Annie or Andy) is trying to stay unnoticed, and occasionally sharing sideways glances at Bella. I think she is hoping that my Aunt and Uncle do not arrange a marriage for her to Rodolphus's sadistic brother Rabastan.

I try hard not to laugh as Cissy, who has now stopped entertaining herself by kicking, is now trying to get my attention with a series of weird blinking which only I can understand. Luckily Mother is not looking. After a quick glance at Sirius, I decide to take up a silent conversation with her.

When dinner is over, Sirius is the first to leave the room. Cissy soon follows, and heads upstairs to the nursery to play with girls' things. I quite like her, but she is a little too frilly and girly to play with. I prefer Andromeda who is kind to me and allows me to sit near her and just read in silence. She's in Ravenclaw, much to my Mother's distaste. Once my Mother tried to get my Uncle to disown her, but he refused, saying that he was proud to have such a clever daughter.

Mother, Father, and my Aunt and Uncle retire to the drawing room. That just leaves me, Andromeda and Bella.

"I wish Mother and Father could just let me do what I want. I don't even like Rodolphus that much – he isn't even good looking," Bella ranted.

"Oh come on, it could be worse," Andromeda said calmly.

"What do you know? You're not the oldest! They don't expect _you_ to be the perfect pureblood!" Bella shouted. "At least your boyfriend's good looking," she added quietly.

"How do you know about that?" Andromeda asked, surprised.

"I saw you together by the lake. His name's Ted isn't it?" Bella said. "Is he muggle born?"

Andromeda nodded. Bella laughed and said in a singsong voice. "Mother's going to hate this!"

"You're not going to tell her are you?" Andromeda was beginning to get worried.

"No," said Bella, " but I might just go and tell Aunt Walburga right now." Bellatrix started to walk towards the door, but after a quick glance at Andromeda's expression burst into fits of giggles. I wasn't quite sure what was so funny. Mother would have thrown a fit and shrieked and howled the whole house down if either of us had even looked at a 'muggle born'. Once she had caught me talking to a 'muggle' and had thrown this horrible curse at me that made my whole body hurt (Bella said that one was called the Cruciatus Curse), so I couldn't imagine what she would do if Andy had been _kissing_ one.

"Not funny at all, Bella," said Andromeda, dryly, but I could see she was smiling.

After a few minutes, Andromeda follows the grown ups into the drawing room. Bella and I watch from the doorway.

"Mother, is it alright if I go out for a while," she asks Aunt Druella.

"Yes of course dear, but will you take the boys with you so that we may enjoy some peace and quiet?"

"Yes Mother."

Andromeda asks me and Siri if we would like to go to the park. I say yes immediately, but Sirius refuses to come saying the park is for babies. I think Andromeda actually has something else she wants to do instead, but if Sirius would rather stay in his room on his own that's his choice.

…..

Five minutes later, we are out of Grimmauld Place and heading down the main road in the opposite direction of the park.

"So where are we actually going?"

"Well I'm supposed to be meeting my boyfriend and his other friend in a few minutes. Are you OK to come too?"

"I think so," I say. "What's he like? Is he scary like Rodolphus is?"

"No, he's really nice. I think you'll like him actually."

We round the corner and see two boys about Andromeda's age wearing muggle clothing. Andromeda runs and hugs one of them, who has brown hair and blue eyes.

"Hello, sorry I couldn't get away without an excuse. I told them we were going to the park. By the way you two, this is my cousin, Reggie."

"Hi, I'm Ted Tonks," says the brown haired boy, holding out his hand. I shake it, noticing it is clean and soft like mine. I'll have to talk to Bella about that later – she said that muggle-borns were dirty and made of mud.

"Bellatrix said that all muggle borns were scary mud people, but you look normal." Ted is laughing, the either boy just looks confused. Andromeda just looks furious.

"Reg! Don't just say the first thing that comes into your head! And don't just believe everything Bella says, because most of it's blood-purist rubbish!"

"What?" asks the boy that isn't Ted Tonks.

"Some wizards don't like others whose parents can't do magic," explains Ted. "They refer to as mudbloods because apparently we have dirty blood. That's why me and Andy are dating in secret, because her parents would hate me."

"Oh right," the other boy says, flicking his black hair out of his face. "My name's Ryan by the way."

The three of them discuss what to do for the rest of the day, and decide to go to Ryan's house. He is actually a muggle, not a wizard and I've never been to a muggle house before. I wonder what they look like. Ryan says he has a sister my age that I can play with. I hope she is nicer, and more fun than Cissy is.

…..

_A/N: That's all for now. In the next few chapters, Regulus makes a friend, gets a pet, and has a major fall out with Sirius, and takes some not-very-good advice from one of his cousins. Guess which one…_

_Please review. I have planned the main events of this story and at least two sequels, up to Sirius's seventh year. PS, if you have any ideas for how to continue my other story, please feel free to leave it reviews for either of the stories._


	2. Chapter 2: Can't Breathe

_Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. The only characters that are mine here are Ryan and Stephannie._

_AN: I've just re-written this, so I hope it is better._

**Chapter Two: Can't Breathe**

Andromeda and I walked followed the two boys through the muggle streets. As we got further from home, the streets became narrower, and the houses became shorter and thinner. There were also more muggle children playing in the streets. They didn't really look any different to wizards and, if I hadn't known that this was a muggle neighbourhood, I would have thought that they were wizarding children like I was. When I mentioned this Andromeda just looked exasperated and told me that the only difference between muggles and wizards was that muggles were unable to do magic. After that I didn't say anything.

When we reached Ryan's house, he led us up the garden path before letting himself and the rest of us in. I took off my shoes and left them by the door like everyone else had and then stared around at the hallway in amazement. The walls were painted a light blue colour, like the sky, and the floor was covered by a soft, darker blue carpet. That wasn't particularly remarkable. What were odd were the pictures all over the walls. The first of which was a picture of two people, whom I presumed were Ryan's parents, wearing wedding outfits. Another showed the same man, this time lot younger, wearing rather odd-looking, black robes, and a peculiar, square-shaped hat (I guessed this was some kind of muggle fashion). However, instead of waving at me they just stood there smiling – silent and rigid like statues.

"Why are they so still?" I asked.

Andromeda sighed and shook her head, willing me to shut up. Ryan just looked confused. Eventually, Ted answered and told me that muggle photographs didn't move the same way that wizard pictures did. He even said that when he had first gone to Hogwarts he had been shocked when the pictures in the frames wanted to talk to him. I found that hard to believe; the pictures in the portraits at home always talked to me except for when they were snoring. But maybe muggle portraits were just as still as the photographs were.

I followed the three of them upstairs. When we reached the first floor landing they stopped and Ryan opened the door to a room with bright red wall paper.

"Steph? You in there? I've got someone here who'd like to meet you," Ryan called. About half a minute later, a girl about my age with large, brown eyes and two long, black plaits came out. She looked like a younger, more girly version of Ryan.

"Hi. My name's Stephannie, but call me Steph because I don't like being called Stephannie," she said very quietly and rather too fast. I wasn't sure whether I'd really known her long enough to call her by a shortened name, but then both she and Ted had asked me to. Maybe muggles shortened their names all the time.

"I'm very pleased to meet you. I'm Reggie," I told her, holding out my hand for her to shake. If she was going to use informal terms then so was I. Usually only Sirius, Cissy and Andromeda were allowed to call me that.

Instead of shaking my hand, Stephannie took it and used it as a lever to pull me into her bedroom. I looked around it. I was shocked at how many toys there were. There was a dolls house (a lot less fancy than Cissy's but still obviously recognisable as one); what appeared to be a very loopy and dangerous miniature road with pretend muggle cars on it (some of which were upside-down); a huge marble run taking up a quarter of the room, and lots of tiny multi-coloured bricks all over the floor. If I'd made a mess like that in my own bedroom, I'm sure Mother would have had a fit!

"Sorry about the mess. I was playing with the Lego earlier and I didn't know anyone was coming over." I presumed that "Lego" meant the bricks, for they looked like the thing that had most recently been played with. I wasn't sure what to say, so I didn't say anything. Steph asked me if I wanted to play and I said yes. We started building a castle.

Steph hadn't actually got enough 'Lego' or starting base to build a castle like Hogwarts, so we built a simple castle with four turrets in a square shape.

"Have you ever been to a castle?" Steph asked.

"No, but my brother Sirius is going to one to learn magic in September. I wish I could go too," I said. It wasn't the fact that Sirius would be learning magic when I wasn't that bothered me. It was the thought of being left alone in the lonely big house while Sirius got to make loads of new friends and play Quidditch that had me longing to go with him.

"Learn magic eh? My Mum told me magic wasn't real but I didn't believe her!"

"Well I think wizards try to keep it secret. I don't really know why," I said.

"Why you telling me then," she says laughing.

"My cousin Bella says I shouldn't be talking about magic to muggles – non magical people – but my other cousin, Andy, says I shouldn't listen to what Bella says, so I'm doing the opposite of what Bella says from now on," I said. The idea was pretty funny, but then I realised that what Bella says might be based on what Mother says, in which case it would be very bad idea indeed.

"So, what else do you know about the castle then? Is it like this one?" I looked at the red, yellow, blue and green striped, four-walled, miniature castle. It looked nothing like the pictures of Hogwarts that Andy and Bella had shown me.

"No, it's bigger," I said.

"Obviously."

"Well, I've never been to it, but I've read all about it in 'Hogwarts: A History'. That's a big book about the school. The great hall has the ceiling charmed to look like the sky and it's absolutely immense," I said. Steph looked impressed. "If you like, I'll lend you it – the book I mean, not the hall," I added, as I looked at the expression on Steph's face. "If Andy brings me again, I'll bring it with me and you can read it."

"Thank you. So will you miss your brother when he goes there?"

"Yeah. We don't get on all the time, but when he plays with me it is fun," I said. I'd only just met her, so I didn't tell her how Sirius always blames me whenever anything goes wrong, how even if Sirius does get the blame, I still get punished after, or that Sirius thinks I am "weak, fat, stupid, and a baby". I'm none of those things – well at least I don't _think _I am.

Just then, a woman who looked a lot like Steph and her brother entered the room.

"Stephannie, I'm just putting tea on. Can you please tidy up that awful mess, because I need to Hoover in here," she said. "Oh, hello, who's this?

"Reggie," I said.

"Oh. Are you related to Andromeda by any chance?" she asked. People usually said that Andromeda and I looked alike. I didn't really think we did: she had brown hair, whilst I had black hair. Our eyes were also different colours. However everyone would say that our facial features were very similar.

"Yeah, she's my cousin," I replied.

Steph's mum didn't seem to have any problem with having to cook for uninvited guests, which I found odd. Steph and I chucked all the unused Lego into a box and then shoved it all under the bed. After we had done this, a strange loud noise started up. I jumped and clutched Stephannie in fright, but I managed to stop myself from screaming as the noise grew louder.

"Don't worry, it's just the Hoover," she told me, laughing.

"The what?" I asked. I'd never heard of a hoover before.

"Hoover. It's for cleaning," she said, pointing over at her mother. Her mother appeared to be standing next to a strange red monster with a very long, black nose, to which she had attached a pole with a brush on the end of it. I presumed the loud noise was because the creature did not want the pole to be attached to its nose.

"Don't you have a house elf to do that?" I asked, staring confusedly at Steph's mother's rather odd cleaning methods. Surely it would have been a lot simpler to use a broom or a mop, or whatever it was that Kreacher normally used to clean the floors with.

"House elf? I thought they were pretend. I've got a book all about them though."

"Oops. I thought everyone had house-elves," I said.

We looked at Steph's picture book with the house-elves in it. There were also fairies, leprechauns, pixies and nixies in it too, and Steph said I could borrow it if I wanted. I said yes.

Soon it was time for tea. Steph's mum had made sausages, beans and some yellow, smiley-face shaped things. Ryan told me they were made of potato, like chips. I ate the sausage and beans, which were really nice, but then I was left with smiling faces, which I really didn't really want to cut into. Steph plonked hers in a blob of red sauce, so that redness came through the eyes and mouth. I imagined it was Cissy's face with blood coming out, and it made me feel sick. I didn't eat any more.

After dinner, we went back up to Stephannie's room again. Her mother came in again, this time with a pink feathery thing on a stick. She started to clean the shelves. I'd seen Kreacher do this before, but I usually stayed out of the way because it made me ill. Clouds of dust went into the air, making my throat feel tight. I couldn't breathe properly, and I wanted to cry, except that last time this happened Andy said crying was the worst thing you could do.

The woman stopped her cleaning and started to call for Andy. I stayed where I was, trying to calm down, but not succeeding. Andy came and put her hands on my shoulders, and finally my breathing was back to normal. She said we were leaving, and started to carry me home. I fell asleep somewhere on the way home.

...

_AN: I hope this is better writing and that it is consistent with the rest of the story. I hope Regulus doesn't sound like he is fluctuating between a nine-year-old and a twelve-year-old in this. The problem was that some parts are the original, but a lot of it is now rewritten. I've done a lot of writing since I first wrote this and in that time, Regulus has aged about three and a half years. I hope this is okay now._

_Tell me what you think of the characterisation and plot so far._

_Please review._


	3. Chapter 3: Crybaby

Disclaimer: I do not own the 'Black Family' or 'Grimmauld Place'. If you picked up the reference from the previous chapter, I also do not own smiley face chips, though I'm not sure if they were around 40 years ago – if not, then they are easy to make anyway.

A/N: Sirius is very irritable because he doesn't like being awoken in the middle of the night, and also he has had past experiences where he thinks his parents have treated himself and Regulus unfairly. I have positioned the family bedrooms on the second floor. Also, in this story, Regulus's toy Sirius II is pronounced 'Sirius 2', not 'Sirius the second'.

Chapter Three: Crybaby

I couldn't sleep. I'd had a nightmare, and I couldn't get the pictures of people covered in blood and Bella saying all 'mudbloods' should die, out of my head. I untangled the bedclothes from around me, and hugged my toy dog to my chest. Sirius gave me the small, black dog for my second Birthday, and I'd named it Sirius II. I was also hungry, as it was over eight hours since I had had tea at Steph's house. Yesterday Andromeda had put me straight to bed after we got back – she had been trying to avoid any unnecessary confrontations with Mother as to why I was asleep.

I knew Mother and Father couldn't care less that I was hungry and unable to sleep, so I decided the best person to ask was Sirius. I picked up Sirius II and crept silently across the room to the doorway. I quickly checked there was no one coming, before quickly dashing down the hallway to Sirius's room.

It was midnight, so Sirius was asleep. I shook him.

"Sirius," I whispered. "Wake up!" Sirius rolled over, and pulled the duvet over his head. I hastily pulled it back down, continuing the shaking until he woke up properly.

"What!" he said, half whispering, half shouting. I was beginning to wish I hadn't bothered waking him, and just asked Kreacher for some food.

"I had a nightmare Siri," I whimpered. At first he looked as if he was going to yell at me for waking him up over something so trivial – he did that last time – but then he moved over slightly, making a small space for me to sit. I climbed onto the bed next to him.

"Tell me what happened," he said. I didn't really want to think about the nightmare, but I told Sirius anyway. I leaned into his chest, and he put his arms around me. I held onto Sirius and Sirius II tightly.

"Bella was there," I sobbed, "and she was killing muggles and muggleborns and she was laughing like it was the funniest thing in the world, and there was blood everywhere."

"Well Bellatrix isn't exactly the nicest person in the world," said Sirius.

"Yes, but she's our Bella. Bella that tells me stories about hopping pots and sings me to sleep when I'm upset. She can't be a killer!" I wailed. Sirius shushed me, telling me that if I didn't shut up, Mother would hear us. "She can be _mean_, but not _that_ mean!" I whispered. We sat in silence, Sirius hugging me and trying to get me to stop crying.

"I don't think your nightmare's going to come true anyway," said Sirius after a while.

"Why not?" I asked. I hoped he was going to say that Bella couldn't ever be that mean, that this was just a silly nightmare. Instead he said something that didn't make me feel better at all.

"Well because when witches and wizards want to kill people like muggles, they use the unforgivable curses, like Avada Kedavra. They don't leave any marks on the bodies at all. Bellatrix wouldn't be stupid enough to kill them that messily – the ministry would be onto her in seconds!"

I burst into tears again.

"Shush Reg," he said, letting go of me. "Stop being such a cry-baby. Do you _want _Mother to come in and start shouting at us?"

I hugged my toy dog tighter. Sirius was right: I was making far too much noise, and Mother would be furious if she found me up in the middle of the night. However, I still couldn't help thinking that it would be better if Sirius weren't angry with me. He was always like this though – one minute he would be friendly with me, then I would do something (I don't know what), and then he would just switch to 'grumpy Sirius' and start getting annoyed with me.

"Sorry," he said, "I didn't mean to snap. You hungry?"

I nod. I'd almost forgotten I was until he said that. "How are we going to get food Siri?"

"Follow me." Sirius got up, and went to the door. He tiptoed down the hallway, while I followed behind, trying to be as quiet as _he_ was. "Shh!" he hissed. "What do you not get about staying quiet?"

"Sorry Siri," I mumbled quietly and stopped where I was. Sirius continued walking down the hallway and down the staircase. I knew he was heading to the kitchens – that's where Kreacher would be. He would be able to make us something nice to eat, and then I could order him not to tell Mother and she wouldn't know any different. I cautiously began following again, but slipped on the newly polished floor at the top of the staircase.

I was too frightened to scream! I tumbled headfirst, scraping my tummy and elbows on each and every step, until I crashed into an ornate vase on the second floor landing. I looked down. My right arm was bent at a peculiar angle, and there were pieces of glass stuck in it. When I tried to move it, sharp pain shot upwards. I cried out to Sirius, but no sound came out. Sirius glanced up at me, and then at the stop of the staircase as if to say: "Well done Reg! Surely Mother's going to kill us now". There was no look of concern on his face – he was too angry. I didn't blame him. By the time Mother finished with us we'd be way more hurt than I was now.

Speaking of Mother, she was at the top of the stairs glaring at us. Maybe that was why Sirius looked angry; perhaps he was angry with Mother and not me.

"Why do you have to ruin everything Reg? You're so clumsy, like a baby!" Sirius said angrily.

"I didn't mean to," I gasped. The pain was such that I could hardly talk.

"Yeah right, like it was an accident last time, when you knocked down that painting of Phineas Nigellus, which _I got the blame for_, while you were stood there coughing and spluttering as if you were the victim?" Sirius shouted. What Sirius didn't know was that after he had had an earful from Mother, she had taken me to my room and given me a good thrashing too. Sirius never knew anything about it because Mother used a silencing charm on the room, and I didn't think he needed to know. After all, I'd been the one to break the painting, so I was the one that needed telling off, not him.

"Sirius! Shut up!" shouted Mother. "Regulus, stop being such a baby and get off the floor, you're perfectly capable of walking." I tried to stand up, but everything hurt too much. I could see Mother was about to start shouting again, but I was suddenly saved by Father, who had just dragged himself out of bed and onto the second floor landing.

"Orion, please deal with Sirius. I'll deal with Regulus," said Mother.

Father grabbed Sirius, who had walked back up the stairs, by the shoulder and led him into Sirius's bedroom. He closed the door, and most likely cast a silencing charm on it. I hoped Sirius would get off lightly – Father was usually a lot less harsh than Mother was when it came to telling off. His telling off usually consisted of sitting down and talking quietly about what not to do in the future. Sometimes if we were really naughty, he would get out his old cane, but he was never as bad as Mother was.

Mother started walking down towards me. Each step she took made me more afraid. "Get. Up," she said. "Now!" When I didn't move she added, "I can see that your legs are not hurt, so get off the floor and stop feeling sorry for yourself." I screamed in pain as she grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me to my feet, although no one was there to hear it except herself (who didn't care), great uncle Phineus's newly-repaired portrait, who covered his ears, and maybe Kreacher, who happened to be too frightened and devoted to Mother to do anything about it.

"Stop that, Regulus! You'll wake up all the portraits!" she shouted. She was almost as loud as me anyway, so I didn't see why she was allowed to make loads of noise and I wasn't. I didn't argue back though.

"It hurts, Mother," I whispered.

"Well maybe you should have thought about that before you went blundering about in the middle of the night. I'm not fixing it now - it's too late. Wait until morning." She opened the door to my room and thrust me in. She threw Sirius II in after me. Both of us landed on the bed.

"Please, Mother," I said, tears on my cheeks.

"Look, I said wait. Stop being such a baby. What were you doing anyway?"

"Sirius said-"

"Why do you keep listening to Sirius, Regulus? He is defiant, rude and a complete disgrace to the family. If I hear you talking to him again there will be consequences. Understand?" Mother said, her tone harsh and unsympathetic. She turned on her heal and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

I quickly buried myself beneath the covers, clutching the black, fluffy dog in the hand that didn't hurt as much. I knew what Mother meant by consequences – the torture curse, cutting curse, and possibly beatings, for both Sirius and me. I didn't want Siri to ever have to undergo those, like I had last time Mother was especially angry, so I decided not to ever let Mother see me with Sirius, except at dinner where it was necessary. If that were what I would have to do to keep Mother off his back I'd do it. Even if I never got to speak to him again!

…..

A/N: I think that's my longest chapter so far. I hope Sirius wasn't too out of character, but everyone is irritable in the middle of the night aren't they. Regulus also gets upset quite a lot, and takes things too far, particularly the last two paragraphs – always assumes the worst is going to happen. I'm trying to make Walburga seem like the worst parent ever, so sorry if you think she is a little over the top. Orion Black generally goes along with whatever she says, but is not as mean, and can sometimes be a loving father.


	4. Chapter 4: Hospital

Disclaimer: I don't own the 'Harry Potter' series.

AN: This chapter is a little different to the others, as the first half is told from the point of view of Sirius and Regulus's father. I also may have made a mistake in the last chapter – Regulus falls from the second floor to the first floor. This is also set twenty years before the main Harry Potter books so the healing is not as advanced.

Chapter Four: Hospital

"Father, you promised you would take me to Diagon Alley to look at broomsticks!" Sirius whined. Sirius was dressed and ready to go, and had been whining at me for the last half hour. I, however, had only just got dressed, having been very tired form being woken in the middle of the night.

"Sirius, be quiet! I haven't even had breakfast yet, and I need to check on your brother. He had quite a fall last night." Sirius then started complaining about how I don't care about what he wants, and how I'm always looking after Regulus instead. That isn't actually true, I do pay attention to Sirius sometimes, its just that Regulus sometimes needs my attention more urgently – for example, if Sirius wants to play chess, but Regulus is having another coughing fit, I'm most likely to check on Regulus first. It wouldn't look good on my reputation if my youngest son died before the age of ten because I ignored him to go and play chess!

To be honest though, I don't pay either of them much attention unless I have to. When I grew up, my parents practically let me grow up by myself. I was taught that Black's should show no emotion – they should never cry nor show any weakness. Attention only brings emotion out more – I'm sure that's where Walburga and I have gone wrong with Regulus and Sirius. My parents only had me to carry on the family name, and I had only married Walburga and had two children with her for the same reason. It was what was expected of me and that was what I was going to do.

Sirius finally stopped complaining and went back into his bedroom. I strode back down the hallway to check on Regulus. I hope Walburga healed him last night – I didn't see much, but I saw there was blood on him, and he was screaming. I have absolutely no idea what he was doing down there; my guess would be that it was something to do with Sirius, but I didn't really get anything out of Sirius last night. To be honest, I was too damn tired from being woken in the middle of the night to do anything other than throw him back into bed and tell him not to do it again!

When I opened the door, the first thing I noticed was the amount of blood on the sheets. Had my wife been too tired or too angry to clean him up properly? Or had she not even bothered to heal him? I felt anger rising in me. How could she let my son go to bed covered in blood?

As I stepped closer, I noticed that not only was there blood on the sheets, there was also some on his head. He must have hit it when he smashed into that vase (at least it was one which I never particularly liked anyway). His eyes were wet as if he had been crying, and I noticed the pillow was wet. I moved some of the hair away to reveal a large purple bruise on his forehead. That wasn't there last night!

Regulus pulled away subconsciously when I touched him. His eyelids fluttered, indicating he was waking up, and then he opened his eyes.

"Father?" he asked, looking up at me. He tried to sit up, but cried out in pain from trying to do so. I could see tears beginning to form, and he was clutching that awful toy dog – a sure sign he was upset. "Father, make it stop. Make it go away. Please?"

I presumed he was talking about the pain. I looked at his injured arm and gasped in horror at it. Why on earth had my wife not apparated him to hospital immediately!

It was red, swollen around the joints, and bleeding from cuts made by the chunks of glass imbedded in it. I knew that if I tried to get the glass out, there was a chance he could bleed to death. I didn't want to risk that happening. The arm also looked limp and I didn't even have to touch it to see that there were at least two breakages in it! The arm holding the dog had scratches from the glass, but apart from that it looked fine.

The only thing I was certain of was that today I was not going to able to take Sirius to Diagon Alley. He was going to be annoyed – yet again I was cutting short my plans ruining his day out for the sake of his clumsy brother.

I took Regulus to St Mungo's by side along apparition. I wasn't going to risk floo powder, as I knew from experience that it made him ill. He was a strange child to feel worse from floo powder than apparition. I had been sick the first time my father did it, which of course had meant I had been the subject to much teasing from Cygnus and my other cousins until the age when I entered Hogwarts.

I explained to the nurses that my son had fallen down the stairs in the middle of the night. Everyone knew my house was enormous, so it was believable that I hadn't heard the crash from my room on the top floor. It was also believable because the bruise on him was such that the nurse was worried there might be concussion.

The healers took Regulus into a separate room, and I cast silencing spells around it. I was not having the whole world know that my son screamed like a three-year-old at the slightest bit of pain. The healers worked together, pulling out the glass, and stopping the blood flow. They also gave him a potion to stop the swelling, but couldn't do much about the broken bones. They bandaged his arm and put it in a sling.

I returned home with Regulus that evening to confront a very annoyed Sirius.

…..

AN: Just a quick chapter. Next chapter, there is talk of Voldemort for the first time, and Regulus does a book swap. I know this story isn't very popular, but please review. Sorry, I had to change this chapter because I made a mistake with Cygnus Black. They would probably been brought up together though, so it does make sense.

Please please review.


	5. Chapter 5: Keeping Secrets

Disclaimer: I am not the official author of the 'Harry Potter' books. All I own are Steph, Ryan, and sort of Becky, but she is Luna's mother's sister, so she is not entirely my own.

Thanks for all the reviews I got. Please review after you've read this chapter.

**Chapter Five: Keeping Secrets**

When I awoke the next morning, I felt a little better than yesterday, but not much. However, I knew that if I didn't get up, Father would start worrying about me, which would make Sirius even more annoyed with me than he was last night. The last thing I wanted was for Sirius to hate me, even though Mother had told me I wasn't to speak to him ever again.

It was still quite early, so I reached under my pillow for the book my cousin had given me last night. Andromeda had been to see Ted again, and had picked up the book Steph said she would lend me. She said that I was allowed to play any time I wanted, but I wish I could have gone too that day. Andromeda had explained to them that I was injured and I couldn't play properly, so I'll have to think of another way to send her my book. The book was about magical creatures such as elves and pixies, as well as beasts like griffins and unicorns. I opened it next to 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' so that I could compare them. It was interesting to see that the muggle version of the book was almost exactly the same as the wizarding one, although the muggle one didn't have as much detail on uses of parts of the animal. However, I think that's because muggles don't make potions like we do – I think Andromeda said they do something called 'medical research' to find cures for things instead.

Kreacher came in to tell me that breakfast would be ready in about fifteen minutes. I quickly shoved the book under the bed where he wouldn't see, and said thank you to him for telling me. Sometimes I feel like I am the only person in the house who treats Kreacher like a person: Sirius hates him, and Mother and Father treat him like dirt, except you don't threaten dirt or say you will chop its head off if it does the slightest thing wrong. I hate the way my parents treat the house elves. There's a collected of heads of them in the hallway that just got decapitated when they got too old to work – sometimes I feel sick just looking at them. I cried when Mother killed our previous one – yeah I know, it's not what Blacks are supposed to do, but I couldn't help it – I hate killing. Sirius didn't cry, but I could tell me was disgusted at the whole idea. He doesn't like mindless killing either.

When Kreacher was gone, I dressed as quickly as I could. It's actually quite hard to get dressed by yourself when you have a broken arm, but I managed and I didn't ask for any help at all. I washed in the bathroom, pulling stupid faces in the mirror as always (it looks funny and it annoys everyone else whose trying to get in the bathroom). The bruise on my face was a lot fainter than yesterday, thanks to the healers, but you could tell it was sore still. I then went downstairs to join my family at the breakfast table.

Sirius scowled at me when I entered the room. I know it was because he is jealous that I got all the attention yesterday, but I couldn't really help that. I didn't scowl back, but just mouthed "I'm sorry," and hoped he understood. Sirius doesn't do subtle, though, so I seriously doubt he would. Father entered next, and then Mother, and we sat down at the dining table. Kreacher brought in the 'Daily Prophet and gave it to Father, who sat reading it while we waited for Kreacher. It was a Saturday, so Kreacher brought in cooked breakfast (eggs and bacon and that), and cups of tea for everyone. I thanked him, and told him to make some tea for himself, but Father just ordered him to clean the attic instead – I think he just wanted Kreacher as far away as possible. Kreacher, of course, followed father's orders and not mine, because Father is more important than I am even if Kreacher told me he likes me better.

Mother and Father began talking about the contents of the paper. Sirius and I weren't really listening, but I switched on when I heard the words 'killing' and 'worthless mudbloods' in the same sentence. Mother and Father were talking about rumours of a 'dark lord' that wants to rid the world of muggles and muggle borns, and to my horror, they actually seemed to agree with his ideas. I couldn't help thinking of Ted Tonks and that he doesn't deserve to die just because his parents are not wizards. I glanced at Sirius. He looked as disgusted as I felt.

I desperately needed to change the subject.

"Father, please may I leave the table," I said. When Father nodded, I asked. "Father, can I borrow an envelope, and can I use Athena to send a letter to Rebecca?" Athena is our owl, and Becky (Rebecca) is the only person my family approve of me playing with that is actually nice. She is pureblood, but her family are not thought of as 'blood-traitors' and are all in Ravenclaw, not Slytherin. As girls go, she's really nice, and she is clever, unlike Crabbe, who my parents insist that I talk to on a regular basis.

Father said yes, and I left the table to choose an envelope from the study. I chose the biggest one I could find, because believe it or not, I'm not just sending a letter.

I rushed upstairs and began writing my note. It was not addressed to Becky.

_Dear Stephannie,_

_Thank you for lending me that book. I compared to it to one of mine, and it is very similar to what wizards think. I know I shouldn't be telling you all this at all, but Andromeda says not to believe what Bella tells me, and it was Bella that told me not to tell non-wizarding people about magic. _

_I'm really sorry I couldn't play yesterday. I hurt myself falling down the stairs. I don't think I will be able to play either today because Father had promised Sirius he will take him to Diagon Alley to get broomsticks, and he says I can go too. I also have other bad news. Father says there is a new dark wizard, who wants to hurt all non-magical people and people who have parents that can't do magic. I really hope he doesn't hurt you, and if he does, I will try and get Andromeda to protect you. Maybe I can even persuade Bellatrix to as well, but she doesn't really like people who can't do magic. Don't be scared._

_I've enclosed the book all about Hogwarts that I told you about. Sorry it's so long. I hope you like it._

_From Reggie Black._

I slipped 'Hogwarts: A History' into the envelope, as well as the letter, and addressed it appropriately. Then I attached it to Athena's leg. Hopefully she will be able to carry it.

…..

AN: I know some of you think I may have made Regulus a bit too weak. He's not, but his family think he is because he gets 'ill' a lot, and gets upset when he is hurt. I'm sure if you fell down the stairs when you were nine, you would cry or scream, even if you didn't get glass embedded in you. You may also think the letter is a bit silly, but Regulus thinks Stephannie ought to know about the 'Dark Lord' so she is not hurt. He also doesn't really know why he is not meant to tell muggles, and thinks it is just because his parents both hate them.

Also, in 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' chapter one, it says that in 1980, there had been little to celebrate for 11 years, so I'm taking that to mean Voldemort was around then. That's enough evidence to suggest he was around in 1970, even if he was only talked about in some circles.

I hope you like this. I also have a new crossover story if you want to have a look.

Please review.

Sadie K


	6. Chapter 6: Diagon Alley

Disclaimer: I do not own the 'Harry Potter' books. **Chapter Six: Diagon Alley**

"Father, why can't we just use the floo network," moaned Sirius. Father had decided to take us both to Diagon Alley via side-along apparition, and Sirius looked as if he was about to be sick.

"Firstly, because Regulus-"

"I know Regulus hates floo powder, but I hate apparating. Why is it always about what Regulus wants?" said Sirius.

"If you'd let me finish," said Father, gritting his teeth, "you would know that I wasn't just thinking about Regulus. Do you remember what happened last time?"

I think that that was probably a 'rhetorical question' because I don't think Sirius would ever forget what happened last time. He had ended up in a shop full of dark objects and dark arts books, in Knockturn Alley, and when someone had entered the shop, he had tried to hide in a big, tall cabinet. He had ended up in a muggle village in the middle of nowhere, and had been extremely lucky that one inhabitant had been a wizard and called the Ministry. Otherwise we might never have found him.

Sirius just nodded his head in reply, embarrassed by the whole issue. I'd never told him, but I had actually been quite worried when he disappeared. Bellatrix said there's a cabinet like it at Hogwarts called the vanishing cabinet – I wasn't sure if I believed her, but I warned Sirius about it anyway, at the time.

Father led us through the street towards the broomstick shop. He was only going to buy a broomstick for Sirius, but he told me I was allowed to choose something to take home. There wasn't any point at all in buying quiditch gloves, or a beater's bat, when I didn't actually own a broomstick, so I chose a book all about the sport so he would know what position to play when I got to Hogwarts. Sirius, of course, chose the fastest and most expensive broom he could find, and because Father was quite rich, he bought the broom without question. I wasn't jealous because it was meant for Sirius's birthday, which was a few weeks ago, and I knew Father would buy me a broomstick when I was older.

Father then went off to buy some potions ingredients, leaving Sirius and I alone. Sirius continued looking at broomstick accessories, while I looked around for something else to do. I soon spotted Becky and her parents outside Flourish and Blots, and ran up to meet them. Becky ran up to meet men too, her long blonde hair streaming behind her.

"Hey Reggie, guess what?" she said, after giving me a bone crushing hug (this actually hurt a lot, but I didn't want her to think I didn't like her, so I said nothing about it).

"What?" I asked, curious.

"Sekhmet's had kittens!" she said.

"Wow! How many?" Sekhmet is one of Becky's cats; she has two female cats called Sekhmet and Bast. I'd always wanted a cat or a dog, but somehow my parents had never got round to buying me one. Sirius II was fun to play with, but he wasn't really a dog, and didn't roll over or fetch, like a real dog either.

"Four. You can have one if you like," she said, "come to my place when you've finished shopping and you can choose one."

"Ok, but I have to ask Father first," I said. I hoped father would let me keep it. There was no real reason not to as we didn't live on a busy muggle road and there were no cars to squish it. Once I'd seen a cat get killed by a muugle car, and my parents had managed to convince me for a whole month that muggles were all evil just based on that fact.

"Yeah sure," she said, and then started giggling.

"What?" I mouthed.

"Over there," she said. I looked where she was pointing and saw her sister holding hands with a boy, and talking to him. She had a very dreamy, dopey expression on her face, and so did he. "They went on a date yesterday," she said, laughing hysterically.

"What did they do?" I asked, knowing it was likely to be something mad, like making weird explosions by missing random potion ingredients, or something. Becky's sister was crazy.

"They went," she began, but burst out laughing, "hunting for crumple-horned snorkaks."

"What?" I asked. "Those aren't in my book of magical creatures at all!"

"I don't think they are real. I think her boyfriend invented them," Becky told me. It seemed an odd thing to do, but I supposed it might be quite fun believing in fantasy creatures (I supposed most muggles classed hippogriffs and unicorns as fantasy creatures). I didn't want to try it though – hunting for things that didn't exist was a bit silly. I watched as my best friend's sister kissed the boy, while we made gagging noises, and then Father came along and called me over.

…..

That afternoon, I sat and played with my new kitten. Father had agreed to let me keep one, and I had chosen a little grey tabby. She had lots of stripes like a tiger, so I'd called her Tigress, after a female tiger. She had been the only stripy cat in the litter – the others had been two plain black cats, and a patchy brown cat.

I was in my bedroom with her because Sirius wasn't talking to me. I think he was jealous because I was paying more attention to the kitten than to him, but he hadn't been talking to me before I got the kitten anyway.

She was playing with a ball of wool I'd found in a cabinet downstairs, when I heard a knock on the window. It was Athena, returned from her epic journey to Steph's house. I opened the window to let her in. Tigress rushed under the bed in fright as the owl swooped into the room – so much for being the daughter of a lion goddess. I untied the letter from the bird's leg, and sat down on the bed to read it. Athena flew off, to Father's window instead.

I read the letter:

_Dear Reggie,_

_Thank you for the book. I've only read the first chapter, but I'm finding it really interesting to learn about wizards and the enchanted castle. My Mum came in to make me tidy my room again and she was really shocked to see me reading such a thick book. I'm glad you are enjoying the book I gave you._

_I am a bit worried about this dark wizard you mentioned, but if you think Andy can protect me, then I shan't panic. I showed Ryan your letter, and he's quite worried, but he told me not to tell anyone else about it. He knows all about wizards from Ted of course because the two of them have been best friends since they were three years old, and they don't keep secrets from each other. He told me that the reason you are not allowed to tell us non-magic folk about magic is because of something called the 'statue of secrecy' or something like that. He says it's actually against the law, so we really have to keep our exchanges secret from now on. He also found it very amusing that I was reading your book._

_I hope you are better soon, and can come and play. It's still the Easter Holidays here, so I will be able to play every day. After that, I will have to go to school, so you can only come around after 3.30pm._

_See you soon,_

_From Steph._

I folded the letter, and hid it in the draw next to all my socks and things. Hopefully Mother won't go looking there. The most obvious thing to do would be to burn it, but I want to keep it because it feels like something special. I write a reply, which I may or may not post later.

…..

AN: Thanks to all of you who reviewed. I wrote this chapter because in Chapter One, I wrote something about Regulus getting a pet. I also wanted to put Luna's parents in for a laugh. I hope you spotted them.

Please review,

Sadie K.


	7. Chapter 7: Murderer

Disclaimer: I do not own 'Harry Potter' or any of the associated characters or locations in this chapter. The only character that is mine is the cat, and I got the idea for that from Loki-mischief-maker.

AN: In this chapter we get to see why Regulus does not like the Lestrange brothers. It is set about a week after the previous chapter, and Regulus is fully healed from his accident – wizard healing is faster than muggle healing. Note that most of the ages are roughly in cannon, but I have made Narcissa a lot younger than she should be, in this story.

This chapter is dedicated to Warlordess and TricksyBee, for their lengthy reviews on chapters 4 and 5.

**Chapter Seven: Murderer**

"Cissy, please don't. She doesn't like it," I said, watching as my cousin tried to dress up _my_ cat in _her_ doll's clothes.

"Yes she does," she said. She turned to Tigress, and started cooing like she was a baby or something. "Yes you do like it, don't you kitty?" she asked her. Tigress couldn't talk though, so she wasn't going to get a straight answer.

"Cissy, she's not a doll, she's-"

"Ow!" I didn't get to finish, because just then, Tigress scratched Cissy on the arm. It didn't draw blood, but still left visible marks.

"Told you she didn't like it," I said, laughing.

"Shut up," she replied, glaring at me. Just then, we were saved from another argument by Aunt Druella, who was now standing in the doorway.

"Children," she said (I hate being addressed like that). "It is time you got yourselves ready for this evening's celebrations. You have half an hour before the guests start arriving."

I did what she asked and went off into my room to change into my dress robes. Tonight, we would be holding a ball to celebrate Bellatrix's last birthday as a Black. She was going to be nineteen, so would be ten years older than me. The ball was to be held at Grimmauld Place and not Cissy's house, because our house was bigger and had a grander reception hall and ballroom area. I wasn't really looking forward to it: all of Bellatrix's school friends, who all hated me, would be attending, as well as loads of second cousins and family members that I didn't really like much. The only person close to my age that I actually got on well with was Cissy, and so she had told me I was to spend the whole night dancing with her. Great fun.

When I was changed, I looked in on Sirius's room. He was already changed and was sitting on his bed, probably plotting some prank to cause havoc at the party. I went to the end of the hallway and saw that Narcissa was already waiting for me. She was wearing a long, pale pink dress, and her hair was tied up so that she looked like one of the princesses in the fairytale books at Steph's house. She looked really pretty.

I followed her into the ballroom area, where she insisted that I practiced dancing with her, even though there was no music playing. I felt rather embarrassed, because Mother, Father, Bella, Andy, Aunt Druella and Uncle Cygnus were all watching us. Cissy didn't seem to mind and started swirling me around to some imaginary music that she was playing in her head. We danced faster and faster, and luckily I was good at it because Mother had insisted that Sirius and I took dance lessons. We then started being silly, and my cousin and I swung around in circles at increasing speed, until we both collapsed in a heap on the floor, laughing. Mother didn't look pleased, and told us we had better not do that when the guests arrived, which would be any minute now.

I excused myself to get a glass of water, and headed off to the kitchen where Kreacher could get me one – I would get it myself, but Mother had purposefully placed all of the glassware out of Sirius's reach. Knowing how clumsy I was, and how reckless Sirius could be, it was quite obvious why. I drank the cool liquid, and made my way back to my family.

To my horror, though, when I reached the hallway, I saw something terrible happening. Rodolphus and his brother were both standing in the hallway, wands pointed at Tigress. They were discussing which curse to practise on her. I was furious. My cat had done nothing to hurt them, so why did they want to hurt her. I walked straight up to them and asked them what they were up to.

"Oh hello, _Regulus_. We were just trying to decide with unforgivable curse we should cast on this fur ball here." They showed no dignity or embarrassment at having been caught; they seemed to think it was normal. Maybe it was in _their _household, but it certainly wasn't in mine! My cat had done nothing wrong, and didn't need to be tortured or punished.

"That's my cat, and I don't see the point in practising curses on animals. If you want to practise a curse, do it on something that you would normally cast it on, something that could fight back if it wanted to – that's what curses are for," I said.

"Oh, and can you think of anyone like that who would let us practice curses on them? No, because they would fight back if they could," said Rabastan. I don't know why he asked a question, if he was going to answer it himself.

"Actually, if we join the Dark Lord, we are most likely to be casting curses on defenceless muggles, and children," said Rodolphus to his brother. "Can you thinks of anyone more like that we could use?"

"Hmm, yes I can actually," said his brother. It didn't take much for me to realise that they meant me, but I was not going to let them hurt Tigress. They couldn't do much harm to me anyway, because Mother and Father were in the next room anyway. They certainly couldn't kill me, because the Black's were an important pureblood family, and it wouldn't look good on their family if they murdered me. They could also get sent to Askaban for such a wrongdoing.

Therefore, I wasn't scared when Rabastan pointed his wand at me. He whispered "Crucio", which is one of the three unforgivable curses, but nothing happened.

"You idiot! Watch and learn," said his brother. This time when the curse hit me, there was so much pain, that the only thing stopping me from screaming was Rabastan's arm, which I had bitten down on hard when he attempted to hold me still. He didn't seem to mind though, maybe because it kept me quiet enough so that no one else could hear us. I couldn't think straight, so I had no idea how long I was under the curse for, but when they stopped, my whole body was shaking so much that I could hardly stand up.

"You have to really hate to do that," Rodolphus said. "Try it on the cat instead."

"P-please, d-d-don't hur-" I tried to say, but Rodolphus cut me off. I couldn't get the words out anyway, because I was shaking too much. My knees gave way, and I slid down the wall I was leaning against into a sitting position.

"Don't worry, we won't. Rabastan stop," he said. He pointed his wand at Tigress and muttered something that sounded like "Avada Kedavra," and then Tigress was still. Rodolphus picked up the kitten and threw it into my lap, and then the two brothers entered the ballroom, leaving me alone.

I didn't want to be in the hallway when the other guests arrived, and I didn't want my family to see me as I was, so I dragged myself to the kitchen and sat myself on Krecher's stool. Kreacher was cooking something and looked a little taken aback that I was sitting on his chair. At that moment in time, though, I really didn't care about Kreacher's feelings. I ordered him to take Tigress, and put her outside, so I could deal with her later. I just wanted to sit down and cry, but Blacks aren't allowed to cry, and someone could walk in at any minute.

I sat there shaking until Kreacher came back in. "Is Master Regulus upset?" asked Kreacher. I wanted to shout at him, and say that of course I was upset, I'd just watched my pet being killed, but I didn't – Kreacher was only trying to be nice, and he didn't deserve to be shouted at. It wasn't his fault. It wasn't really my fault either, but I couldn't help thinking that if I hadn't intervened, they would have just used 'Crucio' or 'Impedimenta' on Tigress instead.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light, and one of the saucepans caught fire. Kreacher immediately put the fire out, but the food he was cooking had already been burnt. The poor house-elf took a poker from the fireplace and began hitting himself with it.

"Kreacher no! I order you to stop hurting yourself with that stick!" I shouted. Kreacher stopped. However, I hadn't given him specific enough instructions, so he seized a dish, and smashed it over his head as an alternative way of punishing himself. It broke into hundreds of pieces, scattered all over the floor. "Kreacher you do not need to punish yourself for things like that. Go and get a broom – not Sirius's new one, use a cleaning one – and tidy up before Mother finds out you broke it," I ordered him.

While Kreacher was gone, though, Mother came into the kitchen. Perhaps she had heard the noise, or my shouting.

"What happened here, Regulus?" she asked. I didn't want Kreacher to get into trouble, so I lied to her. I'd witnessed enough killing for one day.

"I was going to use the dish Mother, but I slipped, and it broke," I told her.

"REGULUS!" she shouted. "You know you are not allowed to touch the crockery, unless we are eating. What were you doing?"

I couldn't think of a suitable explanation, except that I was hungry, which wasn't acceptable, because we would be having dinner soon anyway. Mother dragged me upstairs, where she gave me a telling off and beat me so hard that I can't really of any words to describe how it felt. After that, I felt too ashamed to come downstairs, so I stayed in my room.

A few minutes later, I heard a gentle knocking on the door. It was Cissy. "Hey, what's up? I heard Aunty yelling at you," she said, coming in. "Oh my god, you've been crying! What did she do to you?"

"Nothing unusual, cousin. I'm not crying because of her anyway."

"What happened then?" she asked again.

"Promise you won't tell anyone," I said.

"I promise," she said. I told her everything, leaving out the bit where they tortured me, and the bit about Kreacher. Cissy was upset too about Tigress; she had loved the kitten as much as I had. I sobbed into her shoulder, and she cried too. I told her I didn't want Bella to have to marry Rodolphus, because he was horrible, and I didn't want him to make her horrible too. I didn't say, but I couldn't help thinking of the dream I'd had a week ago about Bellatrix becoming a reckless murderer too. I hoped it would never happen, but if it did, I would blame Rodolphus and his awful brother.

…..

Please review. I appreciate all reviews and reply to all questions asked.

Sadie K.

PS, please read and review Finding Family, and check out the poll on my profile page (not for this story).


	8. Chapter 8: Bellatrix's Party

Disclaimer: If I was the official author of the 'Harry Potter' books, I would be richer, and would not be on this website.

AN: One reviewer commented that it was out of place to put Orion's point of view in the middle of the story, so I decided to make a habit of it, and put random points of view in every three or four chapters. Tell me what you think of this idea. This part is in Sirius's point of view – which I've never done before – so tell me what you think in a review when I've done. This takes place just after the last chapter left off.

Thanks to Warlordess for reviewing.

**Chapter Eight: Party**

To say I was bored right now would be the biggest understatement of the century. I was sitting at the side of the ballroom, watching the remainder of the guests for my cousins Birthday ball slash dinner party arrive. I'd already done something to the food, and put a mixture of babbling potion and Veritaserum in the drinks. I think Bellatrix and Andromeda had noticed me though, and though they hadn't told anyone except the Lestranges, they wouldn't drink any and admit anything stupid. I noticed that Rodolphus Lestrange was looking very smug, and was giving his brother an "I can do something you can't do" look. I didn't really care – it was probably something vile and disgusting that I didn't anything to do with anyway.

Bellatrix and Andromeda were talking quietly to one another. I could tell I wasn't welcome, and that my input had no place in their conversation. There were no guests I particularly wanted to talk to, so having nothing better to do, I looked around for my brother. He wasn't there; neither was Narcissa. How come they were allowed to sneak off when I had to sit here and watch everyone else? I made sure Mother and Father were sufficiently distracted and sneaked off to look for them.

I looked downstairs, but they were nowhere to be found, so I tried Regulus's bedroom. I peered around the doorframe and saw that they were both in there, arms wrapped around each other. Narcissa looked up as I came in, and I saw that her eyes were red and puffy, and that her flushed cheeks were wet with tears. I felt sorry for her. I opened my mouth to ask her what on earth was the matter, but then I saw Regulus. His face was much the same as Narcissa's, but he was shaking so badly that, if I didn't know better, I would have thought he had just been under the Cruciatus Curse.

"What happened?" I asked. I knew Mother had just told Regulus off, but he wasn't usually this bad after a telling off. Mother wouldn't have used the torture curse on him anyway – she had never used it on me, and I wasn't exactly her favourite son! Mother would never do something like that to her something like that to her precious Regulus!

"T-tigress," stammered Narcissa. She was crying again, and I could hardly make out what she was saying. I heard the words "killed", "Tigress" and "dead", and figured the reason she was crying was because their cat had died. I wasn't particularly upset, as I hadn't really got to like Tigress much. However, no matter how much they both annoyed me, I didn't like to see my little cousin and baby brother upset. I gave Narcissa a handkerchief and allowed Regulus to squeeze me around the middle, and wipe his wet cheeks all over my clean dress-robes.

When she had dried her eyes, Narcissa stood up, and beckoned for me to follow. I picked up Regulus, who was still crying far too much for the circumstances and was luckily skinny enough so that I could carry him. I followed my cousin downstairs, and we tiptoed quietly past the room where the party was, and through the kitchen to the back door.

The kitten's body was lying on the grass outside. Its eyes had been closed for it so that it looked like it had just fallen asleep on the lawn, only it hadn't. I put Regulus down, and he shakily picked up the kitten, and began to walk towards the back of the garden. Narcissa had picked up a spade, which I took from her, knowing exactly what she was planning on doing; she would only do it clumsily and dirty her dress, therefore ensuring the wrath of her Mother. We buried the kitten in silence, with only a "I'll miss you," and "I'll never forget you," from a tearful Regulus.

…..

When he went back inside for dinner, my very angry Mother greeted us.

"Sirius, go and wash your hands. What in Merlin's name have you been doing?" she hissed, trying to stay unnoticed by the guests. I don't know why she bothered; they were all staring at us anyway. "Regulus, I thought I told you to stay in your room. Never mind, everybody's seen you now, so you might as well stay anyway. SIRIUS! GO AND WASH YOUR HANDS NOW!"

I went and washed in the kitchen like she had told me to, and then joined everyone else for dinner. Regulus and Narcissa were sitting next to each other, and an empty chair had been left for me between Regulus and Andromeda – my two favourite people in the room. We may not have always got along, but they were much better company than the others. Regulus had now stopped crying, but any onlooker could tell that he had been sobbing minutes earlier. (Andromeda asked me in hushed tones what had happened, and I told her everything I knew.)

The atmosphere in the room was awful. Narcissa spent the whole time glaring at the Lestrange brothers, particularly at Rodolphus, and I wondered if he had done anything to upset her before hand. Perhaps it was some of the reason she had been crying. Regulus just stared at his food, and ignored everyone. My potion ended up with everyone who had drunk it telling everyone else their blood-purist views and dislike of one another, which resulted in many arguments, making the whole dinner an unpleasant experience; and when my other prank resulted in all of the adults' hair turning their house colours (green and silver), nobody laughed – not even me. Kreacher got the blame for that, but I didn't really care as long as I didn't get into trouble.

Basically, the meal was a disaster. The only person who actually enjoyed herself was Bellatrix, who watched gleefully as everyone else had a horrible time. Trust her to take pleasure in the pain of others. The only remotely interesting thing that happened was towards the end when Rabastan said something that I couldn't quite hear, resulting in Narcissa swiping him across the face, digging her fingernails in hard enough to actually draw blood!

In the end, I was glad when the party was over, and we were all sent to bed.

…..

AN: Sirius doesn't know that Rodolphus killed Tigress, but Narcissa does. Regulus doesn't tell either of them about being tortured, because he doesn't want to appear weak in front of them. Sirius thinks that Regulus is acting as if he had 'just been under the Cruciatus Curse', but just thinks Regulus is overreacting and doesn't realise that he has actually been tortured. I hope I have got it across to you all that Sirius does care for his brother at this point in time, but the two don't get along very well. He would only prefer to sit by Regulus, if the other choices were worse thought, e.g. Sirius would choose to sit by Regulus rather than Rabastan.

I'm a little puzzled that this has less reviews than my two-chaptered cross-over, but oh well. Please check out Finding Family. Hermione's first year is now complete.

Please review.


	9. Chapter 9: New Creatures

_Disclaimer: I do not own 'Harry Potter' or any of the associated characters._

_AN: This chapter is set a few weeks after the previous one. I am assuming that pureblood children aren't taught about non-magical things, and I've extended this to exotic animals. By the way, Sirius has never been under the Cruciatus Curse and has absolutely no idea that his brother has been under it before. Tell me what you think._

_Thanks to all those people who were nice enough to review._

Chapter Nine: New Creatures

I hated term time, for the simple reason that there was nothing to do. During the weekdays, Father would go to work at the Ministry and Mother would try to educate Sirius and I, but on the weekends, when there were no lessons, there was nothing to do. Andromeda was at Hogwarts, and my only other cousin who liked me enough to play with me was Narcissa, and I didn't really want to play with her. For some odd reason, Sirius refused to play with me, saying I only wanted to play baby games, and that I was boring; he would rather sit on his own in his room than play with me.

In the end, I decided to play chess with Kreacher. Kreacher wasn't the best opponent ever, since he kept letting me win, but was better than no opponent at all. I tried ordering him to try and beat me, but I still won every single game. For example, in our latest game, Kreacher had one pawn and a king, while I had Knight, a rook and a Queen (which used to be a pawn). There was no way Kreacher was going to win the game.

After winning forty games of chess against the poor house-elf, I figured that Kreacher's talents would be better used elsewhere, e.g. for making lunch ready to eat in half an hour or so. I ran upstairs to check in on Sirius, who at that time was still sitting brooding in his room – the was no chance at all that he'd take the time to play with me, so I went into my own bedroom. I reached under the bed where I kept my muggle books. I had recently given Stephannie back the book she gave me, as well as 'Fantastic Beasts and where to Find them' and 'Tales of Beadle the Bard', while she had given me back 'Hogwarts: A history' and lent me 'Animals of the world' and 'Grim's Fairytales'.

I chose the animal book, and decided to draw pictures of some of the animals. I drew long grass at the bottom of the paper, and then drew a gazelle, a zebra and an okapi eating some trees.

"What is that supposed to be?" asked Sirius, pointing at the okapi. I hadn't noticed he was standing behind me.

"What does it look like Siri?" I asked. I don't really blame him for not knowing. I'd never seen one until I read the muggle book – I guess Mother and Father haven't told us about non-magical, non-pet creatures.

"It looks like a deer with stripy legs," he said. I pointed out that it was actually more like a giraffe than a deer, but Sirius either wasn't listening or didn't care.

"It's called an Okapi," I told him.

"How come I've never seen one before?" asked Sirius.

"How about because it lives in Africa, and we live in London, where there are no animals anyway."

Sirius thought for a moment, and then looked as if he had just remembered something. "Oh yeah, Mother says lunch is ready," he said.

…..

By the time lunch was finished, it was two 'o' clock in the afternoon. Sirius and Mother had had another argument about blood purity, and although I knew Sirius was right, I had kept quiet – I was still scared to back Sirius up after what Mother had told me about punishing us harder if I got involved, even though it was nearly a month ago now. When the shouting match was over, Sirius was told to stay in his room for the remainder of the day, which didn't make much difference, as it was probably where he was planning to spend his time anyway.

Mother was still in a terrible mood, so I asked Father if I could go to Becky's house instead. Father took me, and I was very nervous, as this would be the first time I'd seen her since Diagon Alley. I'd been avoiding talking to her since Tigress was… since my kitten died, and I owed her an explanation as to why I hadn't spoken to her for a month. I just didn't know what to tell her.

I think Father knew what I was worried about, because when we arrived, he had a quiet word with Becky's mother about it, and then she told Becky quietly. I was thankful that father had talked to them for me, for now I wouldn't have to mention it, and I wouldn't get upset about it again. Sekhmet, who looked like a larger version of Tigress, wound her self around my legs and purred softly. She looked so much like Tigress had, that I couldn't help thinking about it.

We waited until Father left until we started talking properly. I told Becky how boring my life was back at home, and she told me how much more interesting hers was.

"Oh, by the way, Xenophilius told me to tell you that your head is full of wrackspurts," said her sister to me, poking her head around the doorframe.

"What's a wrackspurt?" I asked. That's the second new creature I've learnt about today.

"It's a tiny creature that floats through your ears and makes your brain go fuzzy," she said. Then, noticing Becky had cracked up laughing, she added, "and they're real you know. Xenophilius lent me his spectrespecs so that I can see them too you know. And he's right. Your heads are both full of them."

When she had gone, I ended up laughing too: Becky's laughter was infectious. "I don't care if she can see them with the spectrespecs," said Becky, "I refuse to believe that my head is full of tiny creatures." I myself wasn't quite so sure. I had recently been feeling quite 'fuzzy' or 'dizzy', but I wasn't sure whether that was because of the 'wrackspurts' or because Rodolphus kept using me to teach his brother how to do unforgivable curses. Actually, considering the things Becky's sister usually came out with, I decided it was more likely to be the latter reason.

I decided to tell Becky about my friend Stephannie, because her parents think it is Ok to talk to muggles. She thought it was brilliant that I was friends with a muggle, and that I didn't just blindly follow my parents and couldn't wait to meet her. The two of us set off to Stephannie's house.

It was lucky that I remembered where it was. It took us over an hour to get there because we had to walk from Becky's house to near my house, and then to Steph's house from there. As always, Steph's Mother was delighted to have guests round, even though she didn't know Becky.

Stephannie was playing outside, so her mother let us out the back. It was the first time that I had ever seen her garden, and it was very small – smaller than our kitchen at home. There was a small round pool in the middle of the lawn with a pretend dolphin floating in the water. I ran towards my muggle friend, who was just dressed in a swimming costume and was dripping wet, and stopped just in front of her.

"Hi Reggie!" she said brightly.

"Hi," I said. "This is my friend Rebecca-" I began, but Becky elbowed me in the ribs. "I mean this is Becky. She wanted to meet you."

"Hi Steph. Did you know your head is full of wrackspurts?" she said, in a perfectly dreamy imitation of her sister.

"What's a wrackspurt?" asked Stephannie. "Those weren't in that book you gave me."

"It wouldn't be. I think my sister or her boyfriend made them up," said Becky in her normal voice. I think Steph looked relieved that she wasn't actually completely bonkers.

"So, do you two want to play?" she asked. I said yes, and so did Becky. If we got soaking wet, Becky's parents would be able to make us dry again anyway. I took off my shoes and socks, and Becky tucked her dress into her pants so it would get wet. I thought it looked pretty stupid, but I didn't bother telling her that. We played at jumping in the water, then catch with her dolphin, and then tag in bare feet until her mother called us in for a drink.

We all sat down in the living room with towels underneath us so that we wouldn't make the chairs all wet. When her Mother had gone out of the room to make something called 'Hot Chocolate', Steph started asking awkward questions:

"So who's this dark lord person, you were telling me about in the letters, Reggie," she said. Becky gasped, shocked that I'd told this to a muggle.

"Well, I don't really know much about him, but it is sometimes talked about over dinner with important people. He is someone who doesn't like non-magical people and wants to only have a society with wizards in it," I said.

"My parents think it's a terrible idea," said Becky.

"Mine actually agree," I said sadly. "And I know Rodolphus and his brother are really keen to join up. I hate both of them right now though."

"You won't join will you?" Steph asked.

"Of course I won't," I said. "I'd rather have my arm chopped off than join."

"What if they don't give you that option though? What if they say 'kill all these people, or we'll kill you'?" she asked.

"Then I'll just have to die then won't I," I said.

…..

_AN: The computer doesn't like my spelling of Steph's name, but it is spelt like it is because that is how the character wants their name spelt. It also tried to correct Lucius to luscious once or twice, and it really doesn't like Xenophilius Lovegood or Sekhmet (sachet). _

_Please have a look at my other stories. _

_Next chapter, Bellatrix will be going through her wedding list, and Regulus will be talking to the Lestranges again. Has anyone got any wonderful ideas for a prank that Sirius can pull at the wedding? If not, I'll send him off to Hogwarts soon anyway._

_Please review._


	10. Chapter 10: Guest Lists and Promises

_Disclaimer: I do not own any of the pureblood families mentioned in this chapter. I also do not own the magical world of Harry Potter._

_AN: This takes place in late May. The McMillan boy mentioned is Ernie's father, and the Potter boy mentioned is James Potter, (Dorea is James's mother). Gideon and Fabian Prewitt are also mentioned. Also, Rodolphus Lestrange is one of the few people that actually enjoy using the torture curse, and thinks that children are ideal for practising on because they are too scared to tell anyone._

_This chapter is dedicated to all those who have reviewed and with special thanks to TricksyBee for a nice long review._

**Chapter Ten: Guest Lists and Promises.**

"Why on earth would you want to invite a Hufflepuff, mudblood fourth year, Bellatrix!" shouted my Mother. Bella had come over to our house to discuss the guest list for the wedding with my Mother, and had, rather unhelpfully, suggested that they invited Ted. I'm sure Andromeda would have loved it, if he came, but they were supposed to be keeping things secret.

"I was only joking. You should have seen the look on your face though!" said Bella, only Mother was not laughing. She looked like she wanted to kill.

"Well, now is not the time for joking. You were supposed to have written this weeks ago," she snapped.

"I know, but there's so few pureblood families left. We've got the Malfoy, Rosier, Crabbe, Carrow, Mulciber and Goyle families coming, as well as the Lestranges and all of our family. Hey, what about Great Aunt Dorea? Doesn't she have a son about Sirius's age?"

"Yes she has, but she is married to a Gryffindor blood traitor, and I don't want Sirius mixing with that kind of filth. He'll see enough of that in lessons," said Mother. I was quite disappointed. I'd never met my great Aunt, and I had another second cousin/potential playmate, but Mother wouldn't let us see them.

"What about the McMillans? I know they're all Hufflepuffs, but they are quite respectable," said Bella.

"Fine, alright. Invite them if you really want," said Mother, irritably.

"Crouches?"

"If you must."

"Prewitts?"

"No, they're all blood traitors, and I don't want Sirius and Regulus picking up any ideas from those awful twins."

"Weasleys?" asked Bella. All I knew about the Weasleys was that they all had red hair, and not much money, and that Mother said that I was never ever to talk to one unless I wanted to be disowned.

"Certainly not. They're worse than the Potters!"

"Can Rebecca's family come?" I asked. I hoped Mother would let me have at least one friend at the party.

"Shut up, Regulus, no one asked you for your input. And her family are blood-traitors anyway," said Mother. I was confused - since when was Becky's family blood traitors? They didn't agree with the blood-purist views of my parents, but they didn't go around openly declaring their love of muggles like the Potters and Prewitts did!

"Aunt, I don't think consorting with the half-blood makes them blood-traitors. They're even accepting them into Slytherin now – there's a half blood Slytherin in Andy's year, and he's alright," said Bella. I gave her a quick 'thank you' look.

"Alright, we'll invite them then, but that 'half-breed' is not coming!" Mother said. I think she was referring to Xenophilius Lovegood, but I wasn't sure. He was a bit bonkers, but he wasn't evil, so I didn't see why it would be so bad if he came to the wedding.

"Hmm, I think that's enough people now," said Bella. "Are you coming over to help me write the invites, Reggie?" She asked. I nodded, glad for an excuse to get away from Mother.

…..

Bella lived in a house almost as big as ours with her parents, Cissy, Andromeda (when she wasn't as Hogwarts), two house elves, and most recently Rodolphus (when he wasn't at his own family home). When we got there, Bellatrix opened the door, and as soon as she had done so, Cissy's body slammed into me, giving me a tight hug.

"Hey Reggie, guess what we did yesterday!" she began. She didn't wait for me to answer before telling me: "We went to Diagon Alley to get wedding dresses! Do you want to see mine! It's pink and-"

"Not now, Cissa," said Bella, "we're going to write invites now. Do you want to help?"

"Yes please. Can I do the envelopes?" Cissy said brightly.

"Of course you can," said Bella. She led us into the drawing room, where Rodolphus was standing. He was very interested to see whom Bellatrix had invited:

"Why have you invited those idiot Hufflepuffs and those blood traitors, Bellatrix?" he asked. I glared at him. It was a horrible thing to say about my friends.

"The McMillan family are not idiots, and dating a half blood does not make someone's whole family blood traitors," said Bella. "I'm only inviting them at all because Reggie is friends with them, so if you can't think of anything nice to say then go away." He didn't go away completely, but sat in the corner, clearly annoyed that Bella wanted to invite _my_ friends to _his_ wedding. (Ok so I wasn't a best friend of McMillan – he was too snobby – but he wasn't horrible, and was all right to talk to if no one else was available.) Bellatrix didn't seem to care that her fiancé was sulking, and ignored him.

Bella began writing out the invites on paper, and then handed them to me, to write on people's names. Cissy would then write the same name on the envelope, and put the invites inside. Luckily, Bella soon realised that it was much easier to duplicate the unnamed invitations with magic, than to decorate around fifty pieces of paper, so it didn't take as long as we had expected to do all of them.

Bella told Cissy that she would help her get changed, so that they could show me the bridesmaid dress. Bella wanted to show me hers too, but she couldn't with her fiancé present – for some reason you are not supposed to let the person you are going to marry see your dress. I wanted to go upstairs too, but Bella said that boys were not allowed in girls' bedrooms, so I stayed downstairs with Rodolphus – I didn't want to have to explain why I didn't want to be left alone with him.

I hoped he wouldn't do anything to me, because he didn't have his brother with him, so I sat at the table and pretended that he wasn't there. Some people believe that if you can't see something, then there is no proof that it exists, so I closed my eyes, and pretended I was alone.

It didn't work. I felt his heavy hand on my shoulder and looked up, opening my eyes to see his ugly face leering at my. His eyes were dark and cold, and I could see no kindness in them like I sometimes could with Bellatrix and sometimes with Father. I felt his wand dig into my side, and I trembled, thinking he was going to do what he normally did. "Don't tell anyone about this, unless you want him or her to die a very painful death," he had said to me last time. I wasn't going to tell anyway. When the pain hit me, it was worse than before, and I had to bite down hard on my forearm to stop myself from screaming. He must have practised it on someone else as well, probably a muggle or someone else who would be too scared to say anything. The pain was unbearable, and I felt the room going funny, as if there were several copies of everything in it.

When he had finished, I was a trembling wreck. The room was spinning round and round, and there were now two Rodolphuses standing there. Maybe he had used a multiplication charm like Bella had on the invitations. To my surprise though, he pretended that he was sorry, and tried to hug me. I was most confused, until Cissy and Bella came in, and I realised what he was doing. Cissy was wearing something pink, sparkly and frilly, with a sticky out skirt, and Bella was just wearing her normal clothes. I briefly remembered something about a bridesmaid's dress, and figured that that was what Cissy was wearing.

I didn't realised that I was lying on the floor until Bella lifted me into her arms. I must have fallen off the chair at some point. "I don't know what happened. He just collapsed," said Rodolphus and his new twin. Bella seemed to believe him, and told him that it was nothing to worry about, and that I got ill all the time. I wish she hadn't because now Rodolphus would think he could hurt me and get away with it.

I tried to tell Cissy that I liked her dress, but I don't know if it came out right. In the end, Bella just carried me home, and put me to bed.

…..

Later that day, I awoke to prodding and poking and noticed Sirius sitting beside me. "Shhh, Reg," he said, "I brought you some food, because you missed dinner."

"Thanks Siri," I said, but I felt to sick to eat anything.

"You're so soft, Reg. If you don't end up in Slytherin or Ravenclaw, I bet you anything you'll end up in Hufflepuff," he said.

"Why not Gryffindor?" I asked.

"You're not brave enough to be in Gryffindor," Siri replied. He was right. If I was brave I would stick up for myself and not let Rodolphus hurt me. He was also quite right about Hufflepuff, but for the wrong reasons: I stuck up for my friends, and if that wasn't loyalty, I didn't know what was.

"Siri," I asked. "If I do end up in a different house to you, will you still be my brother?"

"Of course I will, silly. You don't think I'd abandon you because of houses do you?" said Sirius.

"No. I won't mind either, if you go in a different house," I said. And I meant it.

…..

_AN: If you are reading this and are confused, don't worry. Regulus is definitely going to go in Slytherin, because that is what the books say. He just happens to have traits form all of the other houses – sticking up for friends can be seen as either bravery, or loyalty. It will also turn out that Sirius thinks that he has joined the Death Eaters, as that is what Sirius believes about him in the 'Order of the Phoenix'. Regulus is very loyal to 'Cissy' and 'Bella', but is absolutley terrified of Rodolphus. Sirius is still being kept out of the loop about everything, including Regulus's muggle friends. _

_I don't know if you picked up on this, but the nicknames are different depending on who is talking to who._

_Special thanks to all those who reviewed this story and 'Finding Family', and also thanks to 'thecompletebookworm' for advertising my story on hers._

_Please tell me what you think in a review, and please suggest a prank for Sirius to do at the wedding._

_Sadie K._


	11. Chapter 11: Fun Day Out?

_Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters mentioned._

**Chapter Eleven: Fun Day Out?**

"Aaargh! Help me! Get it off!" screamed Cissy. "Help me, Reggie!" She flapped around, trying to get the last bits of the green, slimy seaweed that Sirius had thrown at her out of her hair and off her sundress. It was a week before Andromeda would come home, and Aunt Druella and Uncle Cygnus had taken Cissy, Sirius and I to the seaside for a day out. The grownups were sat on the blanket sunbathing, next to our amazing sand replica of Hogwarts, while we were out rock pooling. Cissy and I had been attempting to catch some little sea creatures, but Sirius had become bored and had thrown a bucket load of seaweed at us, causing Cissy to have a mini tantrum.

"Reggie! Help me get this horrible stuff out my hair!" I honestly did try to help her, but before I could get hold of any of the slippery weed, she toppled backwards into the rock pool, and on seeing her soaked blue dress, burst into tears. Sirius burst out laughing (it was actually quite funny, but Cissy was upset, and at the moment she was more my friend than Sirius was being, so I kept quiet).

"Siri, that was mean," I said, helping her up. Sirius stuck his tongue out at me, and I laughed.

Then I decided to comfort my dearest cousin, who was still crying (for some reason the 'Black's don't cry' rule doesn't apply to girls). "Shh, Cissy, don't cry. Aunty can just dry it with a drying spell, and Sirius didn't mean to make you upset," I told her, offering her a hanky from my pocket. Cissy wiped her eyes, and gave me a quick thank you. She then scowled at Sirius, who just stuck out his tongue again.

"Hey Cissy, come and look at what I've found," I said. I led her across the rocks to my water-filled bucket, and showed my cousin the little creature inside it.

"Is it a shrimp?" she asked.

"No. It's a prawn."

"What's the difference?" she asked.

"It has different markings, and prawns have a different rostrum thing on them," I said. When Cissy asked me what a 'rostrum' was, I pointed to the pointy thing that stuck out between its eyes. I wasn't sure exactly what it had said in Steph's animal book because I had since given it back, but I knew that they were definitely different animals.

"How come you know so much?" asked Cissy.

"Because I, unlike you, actually read those books in the family library," I said. There was no need to mention that that particular book had not been in our library at all.

"Hmm, well, I've got better things to do with my time," she said. I'm not sure if I'd call the things Cissy 'did with her time' better than what I did. It was mostly playing 'house' or 'tea parties' with dolls, or sometimes friends. On one occasion, she had actually managed to rope Crabbe into playing with her – I'd laughed out loud when I'd seen him after Cissy's 'make over'. Cissy was girly, but she could sometimes be so persuasive that it was impossible to say 'no' to her.

"Hey, don't you think the prawn looks like Rodolphus?" I said.

"No, he's uglier, and the poor prawn doesn't deserve to be compared to that murderer. I think it looks a bit like Rabastan though – same beady little eyes," said Cissy. I laughed.

"You know, this all makes sense now because prawns are related to crabs, and the Lestranges are related to the Crabbe family," I said, making Cissy laugh.

We released the prawn back into the water, where it swam off to join its friends amongst the anemones. I stood up carefully, balanced myself on the barnacle-covered rocks on the edge of the pool, and walked around the edge. Cissy followed me as I clambered over the rocks, towards Sirius, who was standing on quite a high ledge yelling because he had found something interesting. Sirius helped me up onto the ledge, which was about twice as high as Father was tall, and then I turned around to help Cissy up.

It was quite a large ledge, like a small cliff, with sharp rocks below. It was big enough to harbour a fairly rock pool that was full of pebbles and deep enough to swim in. Unfortunately, we were all wearing clothes.

"Look what I've found!" shouted Sirius, holding up his bucket, which happened to be bigger than mine. He didn't need to shout because we were right next to him, but he felt it was necessary to do so anyway, because he was excited. I don't know what I was expecting to see – probably some hideous crab or lobster or something, but I was very surprised to see that is full of star-shaped creatures, each one about the size of the palm of my hand.

"Wow! Star fish!" I said, poking my fingers in the bucket. Cissy looked intrigued, but kept her distance. I think she was afraid Sirius would tip the bucket over her head or something; even though she was wet enough already that it wouldn't have mattered anyway. "Can I hold one?" I asked.

"Sure," said Sirius. He picked one up, and put it on my hand. It felt weird, like it was clinging to me. I stroked it with my other hand and showed it to Cissy, who stroked it too, before putting it back in the water.

"Come on, let's go. It'll be lunch time soon," said Sirius. He scrambled down from the ledge, and landed in the soft, yellow sand. He then helped me down, and then we ran back to where we'd left the grownups. What we didn't realise until it was too late was that we'd left Cissy behind.

"Aaaaaaaaaaah!" At the sound of our cousin's high-pitched scream, the two of us ran back as quickly as we could to where we'd left her. She was lying unmoving on the rocks, and I could see blood on her head.

"Go and get Uncle," I told Sirius. For once he did what I told him, and ran off down the beach to get our Uncle. I walked up to where my cousin was lying to get a closer look, moving the golden curls off her face to inspect the damage done. I then checked her wrist, like I'd seen healers do, and felt her pulse. She was definitely alive.

"Please wake up, Cissy," I said, holding her hand. She didn't respond.

…..

It didn't take long for Sirius and Uncle to get back to us. My Uncle checked Cissy over, to make sure no bones were broken, then apparated us all back to his house, and laid her on her bed. He told us that there was nothing to worry about, and that she would be fine in a few hours time, but both me and Sirius stayed with her until she woke up.

…..

_AN: Sorry that this is just a short filler chapter. I put it in for character building purposes. The description of the beach is a mixture of different beaches from Cornwall all mish-mashed together. I won't be able to write for a week because I am going on holiday to Greece now. If there is anything in this chapter that Regulus, Cissy or Sirius find funny, which you wouldn't, it is because they are younger._

_Please tell me what you think in a review._


	12. Chapter 12: Wedding

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this chapter._

_AN: Wow, I've had seven reviews since last time. Maybe this was because I've been away for a week. This chapter is another point of view again, but who is it?_

**Chapter 12: Wedding**

"Ow! Stop it. It hurts!" cried Narcissa, as the brush caught on yet another tangle. My aunt had told everyone to keep a close eye on my cousin Sirius during the wedding, so he had decided to carry out his prank early. Narcissa and Regulus had ended up covered in wet flour. I had easily managed to clean Regulus up, but Narcissa's hair had ended up all matted together, and I'd been given the unpleasant task of combing it all out.

"If you'd keep your head still, it would be over much sooner. We only have an hour before the wedding, and we need to get you dressed as well," I said to my little sister. She was going to be a bridesmaid at the wedding. Bella would have chosen me as well, but I had been at Hogwarts all year, and unavailable for dress shopping.

I finally got through all of her blonde curls, and helped her into her new dress. It was pink, sparkly and very stylish for girls her age that liked that sort of thing. I tried to imagine a younger Bella wearing one, and couldn't picture it at all – if anyone had tried to dress Bella in a frock like that, they would have seen a very angry girl and a torn up dress within minutes! I fixed her hair so that the front was neat, and the back fell down behind her, telling her to go downstairs. Then I got dressed myself.

The wedding would be held in a small local church, but not one that was frequently used by muggles; the majority of my family would rather die than associate with muggles. The reception party would then be held in a separate hall – one much bigger than our ballroom at home. Our house elves would be taken there to prepare the food beforehand.

I quickly dressed myself in a dark blue dress. It wasn't as pretty as Narcissa's, but then I didn't particularly want to stick out like a sore thumb. Previously Bella had unhelpfully pointed out to me that it was my house colours, but then I had pointed out that if we all wore house colours, she would be wearing dark green and silver, so she had shut up about it. I did my hair similarly to how I had done Narcissa's and held it in place with a sparkly hairgrip.

I joined my family downstairs. Narcissa, Bella and father had already gone ahead as they all needed to go in the carriage together. I was left with Mother, my two little cousins, and my Aunt and Uncle. My Uncle was hurriedly checking all of the creases and pockets of Sirius's clothing for Zonkos products, and various pranking equipment. It was lucky he had, because a couple of dung bombs were found in the inside turn-ups of his trouser legs.

"You look lovely darling," said my Mother.

"Thank you," I said. Then I took her hand as she apparated to just outside the church where the wedding would take place. I watched as my Aunt appeared holding Regulus, followed by my Uncle, who was holding Sirius.

"It'll be your wedding next," Mother told me. There was no question; just a statement of fact. I wondered whom Mother wanted me to marry. I knew who I wanted it to be, but I knew that no one in my family (except maybe the boys) would agree to it. It simply wouldn't do to have a girl from the Black family marry 'a muggle'.

I drifted into a dreamlike state, thinking about him. The last time I had kissed Ted had been on the Hogwarts express. We had sneaked into an empty carriage, and spent four hours together, before our friends had come looking for us. Luckily I had the sort of friends that wouldn't snitch on me. We'd shared a passionate kiss – he'd been gentle, and we had put our arms around each other. I'd been very disappointed at our sudden interruption. After that, the train had soon pulled into the station, where Narcissa had run up to be and squeezed me in a tight hug.

The arrival of the carriage with Bella and Narcissa in it soon pulled me out of my daydream. My father stepped out first and held out his hand to help Bella out of the carriage. She wore a simple but beautiful white dress, and her black curls fell around her face, showing off her perfect features. The back of the dress was long, and was held off the ground by Narcissa, who looked lovely behind her. We all filed into the church to start the ceremony.

The only interesting part of the ceremony was the kiss near the end. I could feel Regulus fidgeting next to me and wiggling in his seat. I tried hard not to do the same, and looked across to my left to see a very bored-and-fed-up-looking Sirius wedged between his parents. Narcissa spent most of the ceremony standing quietly next to her older sister, staring down at her shoes and moving them slightly to look at the way they sparkled.

I was glad when it was all over, and we headed to the reception party. Aunt Walburga never let go of Sirius's hand the whole time, making sure that there was no chance whatsoever of him messing things up. I laughed as I walked past Regulus, who was standing next to the Macmillan kid. He rolled his eyes at me as the latter boasted all about his latest racing broom and how 'superior' he was, in a rather pompous manner. Poor Regulus was torn between being polite and listening to the lecture, or running away in disgust. I wandered over to where my Mother, Father and Narcissa were all standing.

I watched as Bella danced with Rodolphus, and then as Rabastan had to dance with Narcissa, who was half his height. Then we all swapped partners: Bella danced with father, while I had to take Rabastan's revolting hand. I danced with him for as little time as possible, before retreating from the dance floor.

I looked around for another partner and noticed that the house elves were starting to lay the tables. I spotted Kreacher with a plate laden with tiny triangular sandwiches walking over to the long wooden tables. I watched as he slipped on the polished floor, sending the plate flying. My aunt saw to it, and kicked him, sending him flying out of the door. She followed him, and I heard her yelling at him to stay somewhere and not come out until he was ordered to. I felt a little sorry for him, but there was nothing I could do to help him. Unfortunately, Regulus had other ideas.

I first noticed that Regulus had disappeared when we all sat down to eat dinner. I asked my Uncle where he was, and he didn't seem to know, but sent me off with my Aunt to go and look for him. We looked all over for him and eventually found him in the cellar talking to Kreacher. The boy was comforting Kreacher, and had taken off one of his socks. He was obviously trying to decide whether to free Kreacher or not.

Of course, Aunt Walburga was more furious with Regulus than I'd ever seen her with anyone. She sent me back to the hall to eat dinner, but as I left, I could still hear her yelling and Regulus screaming. I was glad I wasn't Regulus.

…..

_AN: Sorry this wasn't up sooner. I have spent a week in Greece, where it is much hotter than the weather in England (36-44 degrees Celsius). I hope you like this chapter._

_Please review. Constructive criticism is also welcome._

_Sadie K_


	13. Chapter 13: Telling Off

_Disclaimer: I am not J. and I do not own Harry Potter, the Black Family, or Lucius Malfoy. I also don't own Grimmauld Place, as I'm sure I've mentioned before._

_AN: Regulus's point of view. This chapter follows on directly from the previous. Regulus is getting told off by his father._

**Chapter Thirteen: Telling Off**

After Mother had finished with me, Father came in and started shouting at her. I just sat on the floor and watched, knees hugging my chest as usual, trying not to let the wall touch my back where it hurt most. I was pretty sure that Mother had done enough damage to draw blood - it certainly hurt a lot and I could feel it, wet and warm against my skin. Father continued ranting at Mother, about something to with what she had done not being an appropriate way to treat a child, until Bellatrix came in and yelled at them both to shut up, as it was her wedding and they were ruining it.

Mother hurried off behind Bella, cheeks slightly pink with embarrassment as she realised that everyone in the hall had heard. I noticed Sirius peering around the doorway. He'd probably witnessed the whole thing, and I felt bad that he'd had to see Mother so angry. His face was swept away from the door, as my Mother walked past and pulled him with her.

Father picked me up, and swung me over his shoulder for easy carrying. It hurt where he held me, but I didn't make a sound. Blacks don't cry (except Cissy and she doesn't count because she's a girl), and I was in enough trouble as it was. Father carried me into another empty room, dumping me on a hard backed chair, while he towered above me. I whimpered slightly as I hit the chair.

"Do you understand why your Mother punished you?" he asked me. Of course I understood. I'd tried to free our house elf. A house elf, who, although he was so dreadfully treated by her, adored Mother almost as much as he did me. Thinking about it, the poor elf would have had nowhere to go, and would probably have ended up being employed by another pureblood family who would mistreat his just as badly anyway. I'd heard the Malfoys treated their elves even worse than my parents did, and if he were sent there, he wouldn't even have me to protect him. He would get blamed for everything and treated like vermin – like Dobby (Lucius's young house elf). Perhaps freeing Kreacher would be a bad idea after all.

I nodded, and Father carried on talking. "You understand that Kreacher is our servant. That by freeing him, we would then have no one to do our work for us. We would have to do it ourselves, or acquire a new house elf."

I nodded again. I didn't really care about having to do housework; at least it would have cured my boredom.

"Kreacher is not a wizard. He is not our equal. He is below us. Do you understand me?" Father said. "He is not supposed to be treated with kindness. He is not a potential playmate; he is a servant. His purpose is to do what we tell him."

I nodded, but I didn't agree with Father. Kreacher had feelings to, and while he wasn't a wizard, he still had magic. His magic was superior to ours anyway; he did not have to channel it through a wand, and Andromeda had told me that house elves could apparated in and out of Hogwarts, which wizards couldn't do. Kreacher was not below us in any way. Neither were muggles, who had their own ways of making magic, which wizards did not understand.

"Now that is out the way, I think it is best if we take you home. While I do not agree with your Mother's rashness, I think what you have done today is something you should be ashamed of. You are a disgrace and in no fit state to participate in tonight's celebrations."

With that, Father grabbed hold of my arm and apparated back home. It hurt where he touched me and I winced, but I don't think he noticed or cared.

…..

When I awoke the next morning, my body was stiff and sore. I turned my head, and saw the blurry outline of someone leaning over me. I stayed still as the person drew back the covers and lifted up my T-shirt to look underneath.

"Bloody hell. What did you do for Mother to do that to you?" asked Sirius.

I rolled over and buried my face in the pillow again.

"Hey, I asked you a question. Wake up," said Sirius, shaking my shoulder.

"Sirius that hurt," I said, finally waking up. "I tried to give Kreacher a sock."

Sirius looked at me as if I were completely barmy. "You do realize that only Father has the authority to do that don't you? That's got to be one of the stupidest things you've ever done," he said.

I flopped back down on the bed again, and pulled the covers back over my head.

…..

_AN: Oops, that's quite short, but the next chapter will be up soon and will be Sirius going off to Hogwarts. I also wrote a small one shot on what would happen if Sirius found all the letters from Steph when he was cleaning Grimmald Place. It's called 'Letters'._

_Please review. _

_Sadie._

_PS: I thought the film was good, but there were a few mistakes in it like Luna/Neville, and Lily's eyes looked wrong._


	14. Chapter 14: Hogwarts

_Disclaimer: I don't own 'Harry Potter'_

_AN: I went to see the Harry Potter film on Thursday, and while I was in the toilet afterwards, I heard someone say to their friend, "So was Snape Harry's father in the end?" and the friend said, "No, I don't think so." My friend and I couldn't stop laughing. If you've read my other story, I think you can guess what happens next. Sirius goes to Hogwarts. I won't be writing Stephannie's letter twice, but you will see the letter that it is a reply to soon._

**Chapter Fourteen: Hogwarts**

It wasn't fair. Sirius was leaving for Hogwarts today, and I wasn't even allowed to go to the station with him. Instead, I was stuck in bed with flu, which was what Mother called 'a nasty muggle disease' that she didn't know how on earth I'd managed to catch.

"Hey Reggie," said Sirius softly, removing Sirius II so that he could sit down. "Don't worry, you'll be fine without me. You've got Cissy and Becky and loads of other people to talk to," he said.

"Who else? McMillan? I hate him right now. All he ever does is talk about how whatever he's got is better than mine."

"Well, there's Rosier, Crabbe, Goyle…" Sirius listed. I pulled a face, and Sirius laughed, knowing I would much rather sit on my own all day than talk to them. "Oh well, first years aren't allowed brooms, so you can play with mine, and if you like, I'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat."

I sighed. Mother wouldn't let me ride on a broomstick, and what on earth was the use of a Hogwarts toilet seat?

"I wish I could come too," I said.

"You'll be able to go soon." He went to ruffle my hair. "Merlin, you're burning!" he said, and glanced at the thermometer. It read 104 degrees.

"Will you write to me?" I asked. Sirius was now smearing cold water across my face with a wet handkerchief. He meant well, but it wasn't a very nice sensation.

"Every day," said Sirius.

"Promise?"

"Yeah. I, Sirius Black, promise that I will write letters home to my little brother every day."

"Thanks Siri," I said. Then Sirius tucked me in and left the room to finish his packing.

…..

I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, the sky outside was dark, and Mother was shouting.

"GRYFFINDOR! How can a son of mine be in Gryffindor house? The house with all the blood traitor and mudbloods!" screamed Mother. I presumed Sirius had ended up in Gryffindor then. I felt pleased for him, as he didn't really like the children his age, Mother picked out for him to play with, and they were sure to end up in Slytherin. He might even end up making friends with that second cousin I heard Mother talking about – at least I think I heard Mother say that all the Potters were in Gryffindor.

I thought I heard Father say something about nobility, and then Mother began shouting again. I could hear every word from two floors above them, and some of the things she said were so bad, that I don't think I should repeat them. It included what she would like to do to Sirius if and when he dared to come home for Christmas. She didn't seem to care that I was trying to sleep.

I buried my head under the pillow, trying to block out the noise. I had enough of a headache already without the shouting to make it worse. I wished I knew how to do one of those silencing charms that Mother and Rodolphus knew how to do, but even if I did know how, I didn't have a wand to do it with. Instead, I grabbed hold of Sirius II, which was the closest thing to the real Sirius that I could get, and waited for the noise to stop.

For the first time, I realised that Sirius wouldn't always be there for me in the middle of the night.

…..

The next day, I woke up feeling worse than I had yesterday. A temperature, headache, hurting legs, and a sleepless night did not go well together. Mother didn't come in to see me, and I was glad of that, as I didn't want to hear her saying bad things about Sirius. I don't know how she knew so quickly about his sorting – it had only been about three hours after the feast at Hogwarts, and she had been yelling about it.

I didn't want to see Father either. Although he had been a lot less harsh than Mother, he had also said quite a lot of horrible things, calling Sirius 'a disgrace to the most ancient and noble house of Black' and other similar statements. Needing some company, other than myself, I called for Kreacher, even though I was not supposed to.

"Kreacher has been ordered not to play with Master Regulus," he said, when he apparated into my bedroom. I wondered why he had bothered to come then, but perhaps Mother had not extended the order to "Don't take orders from Regulus, Kreacher." That meant I could at least get him to do something for me, since I wasn't allowed to get out of bed.

"Kreacher, please can you get me some parchment, a quill, ink and fetch Athena for me." Kreacher disappeared, and reappeared with the owl, and the other things that I had asked for. "I order you to not tell Mother about this, Kreacher. I'm not supposed to be doing anything except sleeping."

I wasn't sure if my orders would count against Mother's, but unless she specifically ordered Kreacher to tell her what I was doing, she would hopefully never know. I dismissed Kreacher, before placing the parchment and ink on the bedside table. I dipped the feather in the ink and began writing:

_Dear Siri,_

_I heard that you were sorted into Gryffindor from Mother. She yelled about it for hours last night and I couldn't sleep at all. I don't mind at all that you are in a different house to the rest of the family. Remember after I got back from Bellatrix's house from doing the invites, and we agreed that it didn't matter about houses and we'd be favourite brothers forever? Well I don't care what house you're in, you're still my brother, and I'll always look out for you no matter what. Gryffindor is for brave people anyway, so whatever happens, you'll be OK._

_Mother was shouting about what she was going to do to you when you get home. If I were you, I would stay at Hogwarts for Christmas. I'll miss you if you do that, but I don't want Mother to hurt you._

_On a lighter note, have you made any new friends at Hogwarts. I think James Potter and the Prewitt twins would be in Gryffindor, but I don't know what year they are all in. I hope they don't hate you because you are a Black. Have you met any half bloods yet? If so, are they all as weird as Xenophilius, or are they just like us? Please tell me. _

_Hope you enjoy all your lessons. I know how you adore sitting still._

_Love from Reggie._

I folded the parchment, and put in an envelope that I'd found on my bedside table. I attached the letter to Athena's leg and watched as she flew out of the window to Hogwarts.

…..

The next day, I didn't get an immediate reply from Sirius. Then again, Athena is quite small for an owl, so she might take a long time to fly to Hogwarts and back. However, I was a little surprised, when she flew in through the window of my bedroom just before lunch, carrying no letter. Still, that wasn't going to stop me sending mine. I'd all ready written it before hand:

_Dear Siri,_

_I hope you are having a fantastical time at Hogwarts. Mother had guests round yesterday, and I could hear then ranting and gossiping about what an abomination and a disgrace to pureblood society, from two floors above them. Don't worry, I don't think like that at all._

_I hope the howler wasn't too horrible, though I expect it was. Mother is using the other family owl to send them, as she doesn't know I'm using Athena to send letters at all. I asked Kreacher to bring me the parchment and things, because I didn't want them to know I was writing to you._

_I know from Andromeda's letter (sent yesterday and received the early hours of this morning), that lessons started yesterday morning. She had Transfiguration, Potions, Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmancy yesterday, but I'm sure she has told you this already. Some of the things she said she was learning sounded really hard, but then she is starting her owl year. She said that you would probably be starting with turning matchsticks into needles, and floating feathers. What is your favourite lesson, and who is your favourite teacher. Please tell me how you are finding the lessons, and how you are getting on with your housemates. I hope they are not bullying you, but if they are, tell Andromeda because she knows loads of hexes and curses that they won't know yet. _

_Please write back soon,_

_Love from Reggie._

I popped the letter in the envelope, and sent it off with the little owl. Hopefully I would get a reply soon.

…..

_AN: Hope you enjoyed that. It's longer than the previous one. Kreacher won't tell Mrs Black what Regulus is up to unless he is directly ordered to by a family member, but no one has any reason to suspect that he is up to anything anyway. Please tell me what you think, and thankyou to everyone who reviewed._

_Please review,_

_PS. Please read the one shot 'Letters' which I wrote to accompany this story. It is about Sirius finding all the letters. I might make a second chapter about something to do with the family tree, but I won't do this until I am further along with this story, as it will really confuse people an probably give away too much of the plot._


	15. Chapter 15: No Reply

_Disclaimer: I am not the author of the 'Harry Potter' books. If I was, wouldn't this be a proper book or something?_

_AN: Thanks for all the reviews. There were four for the previous chapter. I got a bit of the story plot here from 'Broken Promise', but I haven't copied their idea._

**Chapter Fifteen: No Reply**

I wrote to Sirius every day, hoping that by some miracle, our owl might bring beck a reply from him. Just a small "sorry, I didn't write before. I had so much transfiguration homework, love Sirius" would have been Ok, but no reply was awful. I considered that someone might be intercepting them, but dismissed that idea. I tied the letters to the same owl as Andromeda's letters, and she always wrote back. She had no reason to stop my letters getting to Sirius.

The other conclusion was that Sirius was ill, or hurt. I didn't like to think that he was, but being a Black in Gryffindor house was dangerous. What if the Slytherins hated him, because he was a Gryffindor? What if all the Gryffindors hated him because he was a Black?

You can't just break a promise without reason.

I decided to write to Andromeda about it. Steph had told me in her last letter to me, that she thought it would be the best way to know what had happened to Sirius. I grabbed the quill that now lived on my bedside table, and began to write:

_Dear Andromeda,_

_I'm really worried about Sirius. He hasn't written back to me for nearly two months now. Is he hurt? Do they all hate him because he is the first person in our family to be in Gryffindor? I remember the Slytherins were all horrible to you when you ended up in a different house, and you ended up going to the hospital wing twice in your first week. Is that what has happened to Sirius? Has he hurt his arm so that he can't write to me?_

_Does he have any friends in his house, or are they all mean? Is he good at magic? Does he enjoy lessons? I know how you are getting on because you write to me at least three days every week, but tell me anyway._

_Please tell me what is going on,_

_Love Reggie._

I attached it to the owl, along with my letter for Sirius. Amongst other things, I told him I wasn't angry that he hadn't written back, as it was most likely not his fault, but asked him to reply as soon as he could.

…..

The owl returned later on the same day. She was only carrying one letter, which I was positive would be from my cousin and not from Sirius. I tore open the envelope, anxious to read its contents.

_Dear Reggie,_

_I honestly don't know why Sirius isn't writing to you. He has only been to the hospital wing once, and that was when one of the Rosiers knocked him off his broom on their first flying lesson. There's no need to worry about him though; he won't be hurting anyone in our family now he has experienced my bat bogey hex, and toenail growth spell simultaneously. If there is one thing Bella is good for, it is teaching her sisters how to defend themselves, or others, though some of the other spells she taught me are ones I wouldn't even use on my worst enemy._

_Apart from some of the more blood purist Slytherins, no one is out to get Sirius. The older Slytherins like Malfoy don't have Sirius in any lessons, and so can't hurt him. Sirius has made three best friends in his house: James Potter, Remus Lupin (half blood, if you want to know) and Peter Pettigrew, and gets along well with most of his housemates. I am guessing that he spends a lot of time hanging around with them instead of writing letters – you know how much Sirius doesn't like sitting down and writing – I expect he has had enough of writing by the time he has finished his homework._

_Then again, I'm not sure if he is actually getting the letters. I asked him why he hadn't been writing to you, and he said that all he'd been getting were howlers from his mother. I know for a fact that he's been getting the twins, who are a couple of years above him, to use incendio on them. I hope he hasn't been mistaking your letters for them._

_As for me, I am still enjoying my lessons. Today in 'Care of Magical Creatures' class, we were told all about Thestrals. I couldn't see them, though, because you can only see one if you have seen someone die. That's one of the reasons some people are afraid of them. All I could see was the meat Professor Kettleburn had chucked at them being torn apart in mid air. I am also doing well in potions, transfiguration and herbology. I have been accepted into the 'Slug Club' now – not that I want to go anyway – and Professor Slughorn is allowing me to do an extra curricular project for him. _

_I have also been doing a lot of 'prefect duty' recently. I've managed to get my corridor patrolling times the same as Ted's so we are using that time to talk in secret. Apart from that we also hang around in the library and room of requirement. I'll show you that when you get to Hogwarts, because if you're anything like me you are going to need it._

_I hope you and Cissy are OK without me. I've sent her a letter too, but without so much talk about Sirius. From what I heard in her last letter, she is quite angry with him for not writing. I'll see you at Christmas break,_

_Love from Andromeda._

_XXXXX_

I was glad that Sirius had been able to make new friends and that he hadn't been hurt too much. I sincerely hoped he hadn't accidentally burnt all the letters, but now that Andromeda had told him that I was writing to him, he would start writing to me more. I quickly wrote two more letters, sent them off, and went to the family library to look up thestrals.

…..

_AN: The next update will be very quick, so look out for it. I will be writing Narcissa's point of view, which I have never done before. I hope everything is Ok, but I think I may have Zacharias Smith and Ernie Macmillan a bit muddled in my head. I think Ernie's a lot nicer, but what's the difference? Can someone please help? And does anyone know what Ernie's dad is called? He's a bit of a spoilt brat in the next chapter though. Also tell me what you think of the Andromeda/Ted and Rodolphus/Bella subplots._

_I hope you like the letters. It is the only way Regulus can know what is going on at Hogwarts, unless I do the parents talking and overhearing method._

_Please review._


	16. Chapter 16: First Flight

_Disclaimer: I do not own 'Harry Potter', and that includes Narcissa, Sirius and Regulus._

_AN: Thanks for reviewing chapter fourteen. It is Narcissa's point of view for this chapter._

**Chapter Sixteen: First Flight**

I hated Sirius right now. It was more than two months since he had left, and I knew from my sister's letters that he had made friends with the blood traitor, Potter, and half blood Lupin, as well as several mudbloods. However, it wasn't this that made me angry – it was the fact that since he had gone to Hogwarts, he hadn't replied to a single letter from Regulus or I. It was as if he had replaced us with his new Gryffindor friends.

Regulus was a lot more upset about it than I was. He hadn't said anything about it, but I could just tell by looking at him. The way he pushed his food around his plate, and didn't eat it all at dinnertime, the way he spent all that time writing when he didn't even get a single reply, and the way he wouldn't play with me or laugh properly when I pulled stupid faces at him told me he was upset. He kept making up excuses for Sirius: "Sirius is too busy doing homework" or "Sirius is having fun pranking all the teachers," he would say. But none of those things were enough to stop anyone from writing!

I wanted to tell him exactly what I thought – that Sirius had abandoned us. He had new friends now. Gryffindor friends. And however much Regulus wrote to him, Sirius was never going to write back.

I didn't though. Not because I didn't believe it, but because I didn't want to see the look on my cousins face as he lost all hope of ever getting his brother back, like I had.

At least Andromeda still wrote to us. She wrote to me every day, and she wrote to Regulus almost as often. Regulus also got letters from his friend Rebecca, who he seemed to be going to be spending a lot more time with that he ever used to. I heard Aunt Walburga and Uncle Orion talking about arranging a marriage between the two of them, but I don't think they were in love, just best friends.

Speaking of Rebecca, we were going to see her again today.

…..

It was approximately three miles to Rebecca's house, so it took us about an hour to get there, since no one wanted to apparate us there. Regulus walked beside me, jumping on all the leaves that had been blown to the sides of the pavements, so that they crunched under his feet. It was a bit of a childish habit, but he hadn't been allowed outside without an adult for days, so, annoying as it was, I let him do so. There was nothing really that I could do about it anyway.

When we got to the house, Rebecca was waiting in the front garden for us. She led us along a path down the side of her house to the sheds at the back of their large garden. She pushed open one of the shed doors and looked inside.

"Oops, wrong shed," she said, closing it. I peered through the window and saw rusty farm equipment, old garden tools, and the remains of an old chicken carcass. It was definitely not the right shed. "Oh, that's better," said Rebecca. While I had been looking, she had opened another shed, gone inside it, and come out holding three broomsticks.

"Mother says we're not allowed brooms," I said.

"Yes, but she's not here is she. Have this," she said, holding out an almost brand new broomstick to me.

"Wow, that's like Sirius's! How come you've got this as well as yours?" asked Regulus.

"Well I got mine last year, and I still really like it. It's fast, even though it isn't quite the latest model. Then Macmillan came round, and told me that he'd just had a new one for his birthday, and even his old one was better than mine. I persuaded him to give me his old one," said Becky.

"But this isn't old," I said.

"No. It's the one Macmillan had for Christmas. He only had it for three months before his Grandpa bought him a new one!" she said. "If you don't want it, give it to Regulus, and have my sister's old one."

I handed the racing broom to my cousin. At the speed it went, I'd probably fall off it and break my neck.

"Okay. Hold out your hand and say 'Up'."

Regulus's broom and Rebecca's broom soared up into their hands immediately. Mine rolled on the ground a few times and it took several tried to get it in the air. I told myself it was because it was an older broom, but I suspected I was less good at commanding it than the others were. We mounted the brooms, and shot up into the air. I tried not to think about what Auntie would say if she saw what we were up to.

We were flying quite high, when all of a sudden there was a gust of wind, and I lost control of the broom. I screamed as it turned upside down leaving me dangling by me knees.

The others turned around, and flew back to me, but just as they were almost next me, I began to fall.

I screamed! I was going to hit the ground! It was getting closer and closer, and bigger and bigger, and then someone grabbed me.

I was on another broomstick and I was safe. For now at least…

…..

Regulus told me later that he had been the one to save me. He had dive-bombed out of the sky, and had caught me just before I hit the ground. In a way, he'd saved my life.

…..

_AN: I hope you like this. I have probably made Cissy too girly and Macmillan too much of a spoilt brat, but then I did warn about that before. I don't know his name, but they are on last name terms. He calls Regulus and Narcissa both 'Black', and I haven't thought of a name for Becky yet anyway. Sorry this was quite short, but I was being quick. The last author's note still stands. If you have any information about Ernie or Zacharius, please tell me. And please tell me what you think of my previous portrayal of Rodolphus and his brother._

_It says in the last Harry Potter book that Regulus was a seeker, so that is why he was able to fly well. It says nothing about Cissy's flying abilities from what I can make out._

_Also, for my other story, I wanted to place someone in the primary school with Regulus for protection. I was thinking Remus or Andromeda, as it is Sirius's idea, but if you have any opinions on this please tell me._

_Please review._


	17. Chapter 17: Death Eater

_Disclaimer: I do not own the 'Harry Potter' books._

_AN: What I don't get is why people have been reading more of chapter 16 than chapter 15. Surely the former makes no sense without the latter? This chapter is for BlackWolf2013, HP fan, and SaraHunterOffArtemis, for reviewing so much. Bellatrix doesn't have a clue what her husband is doing. Here's why._

**Chapter Seventeen: Death Eater**

"Shh Reg, don't cry," said Bella, arms wrapped around me. "Everything is going to be Okay." How could she say that when I'd heard her say to Mother that she was going to join the group of people that were calling themselves Death Eaters? She might as well have said she was going to turn into a monster!

She didn't know what she was getting into. The people that worked for the Dark Lord were evil. They were people like Rodolphus Lestrange, who liked to torture people just because they could. He'd told me himself that he was one of the 'inner circles', owing to his newfound ability to use the Cruciatus curse. He was now allowed to use it whenever he wanted, and not just for practising, which was why he'd used it on me ten minutes ago when I'd accidentally walked in on him and Bella kissing under the mistletoe.

She'd finally given in to him. I don't know what he'd said, but Bella had willingly put her lips to the face of the guy she had once called 'slow' and 'ugly', and she'd described as having 'no heart whatsoever'. How could she kiss someone like that, and then pretend like everything was going to be like it always was?

"What happened Reggie?" asked Andromeda. She was now back for the Christmas holidays, and had helped Bellatrix carry me upstairs, after Rodolphus had finished with me. I don't know why Bellatrix hadn't yet made the connection that every time she left me with him I ended up crying and shaking. Maybe it was because when I had had flu, it had caused shaking and hurting, similar to the after effects of the Cruciatus curse, only not quite as bad.

"Rodolphus…" I began telling her. But I couldn't continue – he'd said that if I ever told anyone, he would kill Sirius. Sirius was still at Hogwarts, choosing to stay for Christmas rather than at home. I didn't blame him, seeing as Christmas at Hogwarts was probably much more fun than Christmas at home. He wasn't entirely safe there though; there were lots of secret passages in and out of Hogwarts – Andromeda had used them to sneak butter beer into her own common room, after curfew.

"Do you want me to fetch him?" asked Bella.

"No," I said. That was the last thing I wanted.

"Did he hurt you? I'll kill him if he did," said Bella. I was so tempted to tell her the truth, but I knew Bella wouldn't be able to kill him. As much as I hated the whole idea, she loved him, and you can't use the killing curse on people you love. He was more likely to kill her – I knew he could perform the killing curse because I'd seen him do it. He'd kill her, and then he'd kill Sirius, and then he'd come back for me again.

"No. He… He called Sirius a blood traitor though," I said, wiping my eyes on Andromeda's handkerchief.

Bella was furious. "Is that it? All he does is say that disgrace of a brother of yours is a blood traitor, and it has you screaming and crying on the floor like a baby? Well here's some information for you: Sirius is a filthy blood traitor now, he's lucky to still have a place in this family at all!"

I buried my head in Andromeda's shoulder and started crying again. Not because of what she'd said about Sirius, but because Bella had changed. Not even a year ago, she'd been congratulating he sister on having the guts to get a muggle born boyfriend against Mothers wishes. Now the very idea of talking to a Gryffindor, like James, or half blood, like Remus, disgusted her! What had changed? I thought I knew the answer, and I didn't want to think about it.

Bella thought I was being a baby – she didn't understand what had upset me and probably never would.

"You've got to get it into your head Regulus that Sirius doesn't care about us anymore. He doesn't care about you either," said Bella. "Have you noticed that he hasn't written you a single reply all year? Ever thought about why that is, Regulus?" I knew what Bella wanted me to think. She wanted me to believe that Sirius hated me, but I knew that wasn't true. For one thing, Sirius had sent me a Hogwarts' toilet seat as an early Christmas present, just like he'd promised. You don't keep promises with people you hate.

"Bella, go and do something useful. You're making things worse," said Andromeda. Bella flounced off, slamming the door shut behind her, probably going off to talk to Rodolphus about what a baby I was being. My nicer cousin conjured me a glass of water and gave it to me to sip. Unfortunately my hands were shaking so much that the water ended up all over the bed. Andromeda magically cleaned it, and decided to hold the second glass of water herself.

"What really happened?" she asked. I didn't know what to tell her. If he found out that I'd told someone, I couldn't imagine how horrible it would be. I tried to picture myself at Sirius's funeral, but couldn't. The only consolation if that happened would be that Rodolphus would be sent to Azkaban, but I wasn't going to risk my brother's life for that. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but if you do, I'm here for you now."

I couldn't bring myself to tell her anything.

…..

Life at home was so bad now, and it was going to get worse. I could just tell. Bella was now on a slow, spiral descent into darkness, which she would never be able to get out of. During term time, the only decent people I had to talk to were Rebecca, Cissa and Steph, and they were all girls. As well as that, Rodolphus and his brother came over with Bella increasingly often to discuss the movements of the so-called 'Dark Lord' – someone who I had no wish to meet.

I had to get out of there, but where to go? The obvious decision was Becky's house. Her parents were pureblood, and my parents wouldn't question it if I packed a suitcase and said I was going to her house for a sleep over. They might notice when I didn't come home after a week, but by that time it would be too late. But what about Sirius? I couldn't leave him to come home to an empty house!

I thought back to the letter I'd written before the holidays had even started. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now that I hadn't had a reply, I didn't know what to do. The letter had said:

_Dear James Potter,_

_I have been sending letters to Sirius all term, and I haven't had a single reply. I came to the conclusion that he is too busy getting detention with you to write. As I understand, you are not allowed to write letters when you are in detention. I hope the letters haven't been confiscated._

_The real reason I am writing to you is because my life at home without Sirius is horrible. Bella is getting more and more into dark arts, and it's scaring me. I hate living in the house by myself, and Mother and Father are showing me no sympathy whatsoever – all they seem to do is shout about how much they hate Sirius, so that I can't sleep at night. I want to run away, but I can't without knowing that Sirius will be safe, which is where you come in._

_You are a sort of second cousin, so are family, even if Mother hates you. Sirius is also best friends with you, and you are probably a better brother than I am, because you play pranks, and don't need looking after, helping, and don't sit reading books all day. Would it be possible for Sirius to go and live with you?_

_Please reply soon, because I don't know what to do._

_From Regulus Black._

I hadn't received a reply, so I definitely wasn't running away any time soon. I'd just have to stick it out, and hope I'd make it till July, when Sirius would home, and we could run away together.

…..

_AN: I hope you like this. Don't worry if you are a bit confused. Sirius doesn't run away until his fifth year in this story, like in the books, but Regulus wants to run away before this. If you have read my other story, you will know what happens to the letter. If not, you will have to wait for the next 'other point of view' chapter, which will either be Potter or Lupin, since I've already done Sirius._

_Thanks for telling me about Ernie. The next question is about Dean. Has he got the surname of his Father, or adoptive father, and would it be OK, to put Dean's father at Hogwarts as something Thomas? I'm not sure how he would come into the plot though, it was just a thought. Macmillan's place in the story is definite – I chose him because I needed a character who, like Ernie, would be loyal, but would jump to the wrong conclusions about people quickly._

_The toilet seat was actually sent home to spite Mrs Black, not for Regulus, but Regulus doesn't know this. He doesn't think a toilet seat is a good present, but knows it is from Sirius. By Regulus's standards, any gift from Sirius is one to be treasured, as you can tell from Sirius II._

_Please review._


	18. Chapter 18: Christmas

_Disclaimer: I don't own 'Harry Potter'._

_AN: The cousins are staying over for Chritmas. Thanks to everyone who reviewed – HP Fan, I'd reply by PM but your not signed in._

**Chapter Eighteen: Christmas**

I put the finishing touches onto Cissy's card, before placing it on one of the bookshelves to dry. It had a pink, glittering sunset on it, which I knew she would like because she liked everything pink and glittery. In the foreground, there was a flying snowman, holding hands with a cartoon version of Cissy. It stuck out from the page slightly to make a three dimensional effect. Next to it was Bella and Rodolphus's card: it had a picture of a certain red-nosed reindeer about which Ted and Ryan had been singing about on it. I doubted Rodolphus appreciated the joke, but if he'd happened to have ever heard muggle singing, he might have got it.

It was Christmas Eve, and I'd already wrapped all of the presents, and put most of them under the tree, except Sirius's, which was now on the way to Hogwarts with Athena, and Stephannie's, which had been given to her previously. Bellatrix had forced me to Chritsmas shop with her in Knockturn Alley, which was a horrible place to buy Christmas presents. Everything there was dark magic stuff, and there was not a single thing there that Cissy would like!

I managed to find something half decent – a thick book that told you how to turn into an animal. It had a huge black dog illustrated on one of the pages, just like a bigger version of Sirius II. I made Bella buy it, and then ran off back to Diagon Alley where Cissy and Andromeda were both looking for gifts. I hadn't been sure if Sirius would like his book – he didn't exactly like reading – so I found him a second gift in the Quidditch supplies shop. It was a snow globe with two black-haired boys flying inside it. It was perfect. I'd also got a nice charms book and diary for Andromeda, and a pretty little china doll for Cissy. I had also bought presents for Mother, Father, Auntie, Uncle, Bella, and Becky.

I hoped everyone would like their presents. I knew Cissy would definitely like hers, and Andromeda would probably like hers too, but some people in my family just kept changing their opinions. I hadn't had a clue what to get Bella – she had changed so much in the last year. I'd settled on a 'Defence Against the Dart Arts' book, and hoped for the best.

As I got into bed, I thought about Christmas. It wouldn't be the same without Sirius, but I would still have Cissy and Andromeda to make it fun. Last year, Sirius had told me that Father Christmas was made up. I'd laughed at him, and told him to stop being silly – he only wanted me to not believe so that I wouldn't get any presents, and then he'd have more than me. In the end, I'd had loads from Father Christmas and from my family, and Sirius had had an empty stocking, but still had presents from everyone else.

…..

The next day, I woke up and rushed into Sirius's room to wake him up, so we could open our stocking presents together. Too late I remembered he was still at Hogwarts and crashed into his empty bed. I dragged the stocking into Cissy's room and we opened them together. They didn't have anything expensive – just little trinkets. The proper presents were for later.

Soon, Cissy and I were surrounded by a huge mess of blue starry wrapping paper. I called Kreacher to clean it up and went downstairs.

All of my family and Cissy's family were sitting in the room with the Christmas tree, except Sirius. Bella had brought Rodolphus too because they were married. I handed everyone their cards, and sat down on Andromeda's lap because there weren't enough chairs.

"Happy Christmas!" I said cheerily. Nobody else was that happy though – Mother kept muttering things about Sirius not being there, and Bella kept muttering about what she was going to do when he got back. No one else said anything.

Andromeda started handing the presents around. I noticed that she had used the same sort of wrapping paper as Father Christmas but I didn't mention it to her.

I received quite an odd collection of presents. The darkest were certainly the books from Bella and Rodolphus – one was called 'Everything You'll Ever Need To Know About Necromancy'. I skimmed through it, and some of it looked disgusting. The other book was slightly less disgusting and was called 'Curses and Counter Curses'. I don't know what they thought I'd be able to do with it because I didn't have a wand yet. My favourite present was a little toy Hippogriff that really flew, which was from Cissy.

"Thankyou, he'd really cute," I said.

"Thanks Reggie. I like my present too," said Cissy giving me a hug. We then made her doll have a ride on the hippogriff, even though the doll was supposed to be a decoration, and the hippogriff was soft and fluffy. We stopped when Mother started giving us weird looks. We weren't supposed to play downstairs.

I sat and watched as everyone else opened their presents. Bella and Andromeda liked their presents – at least they said they did. When they'd finished, me and Cissy ran upstairs to play.

…..

_Sorry this is short, but there wasn't much to write. Next chapter will be up in a few hours. PS, does anyone know what house and what age Professor Lockhart would be? Thanks for telling me what you thought, I'm not sure about Dean's father anyway, it was just a little side thought or 'what if' idea I had. Next Chapter is another point of view. Guess who?_

_Please Review._


	19. Chapter 19: Sirius's Letter

_Disclaimer: I do not own the 'Harry Potter' series._

_AN: This is chapter nineteen. If you haven't read chapter eighteen, please go back a page to read it – fast updates._

**Chapter Nineteen: Sirius's Letters**

I walked into the common room after the Christmas holidays to find Sirius sat reading a book. I flopped down on one of the sofas, and threw a questioning look at James.

"It's pretty much the only decent present his 'family' gave him," said James.

"Not true. I had a box of chocolates from Andromeda, and a pile of broken glass with a mushy mess inside it," said Sirius, looking up from his book. It was a fairly thick volume, with painted coloured pictures in it. I glanced at the title and saw that it was called "How to Become an Animagi."

"It looks quite interesting," I said, "and it doesn't seem very dark."

"That's because you like reading," said Sirius. "It's the kind of thing my brother would like – he loves animals. As for being dark, it's from Knockturn Alley – it says inside."

"That doesn't necessarily mean that it's dark, Sirius."

"Where my family's concerned, everything's dark magic."

"Oh."

Just then two owls flew through the window. Both landed next to Sirius, and the slightly smaller one began scratching at Sirius.

"Athena, get off!" shouted Sirius, as the owl clawed at him. It obviously wanted a reply.

"Why does your family send two owls, Sirius?" James asked. "And then a separate owl from your cousin?"

"Athena is Fathers owl, and the other one is Mothers," he said. I watched as he untied a letter from the less viscous owl, and started to open it.

"Don't Sirius, the last one was awful," said James, but Sirius opened it anyway. James and I didn't say anything as Sirius read the letter. I could see tears in Sirius's eyes.

"Read that, and throw the others away," he said to us, as he stormed out the room.

"Should I go after him?" James asked.

"Yeah, you're his best friend, not me. He'll listen to you."

When James had gone, I picked up the letter and began to read. What I saw disgusted me.

_Sirius,_

_How dare you not come home for Christmas? You are a disgrace to the most noble and ancient house of Black, consorting with Mudbloods and filth such as that half-breed Lupin boy. What have you got to say for yourself? And what are you doing with that blood-traitor Gryffindor boy? What kind of an example are you setting for your little Brother? He was so upset when he heard you'd been put in that godforsaken house!_

_Why can't you be a normal child? Bellatrix and Rodolphus have both gladly joined the Death Eaters, so why can't you?_

I couldn't bring myself to read the rest of it; it was all blood purist propaganda. I threw it onto the fire, as Sirius had told me to, before turning to the other owl. There were three letters attached to it: one for Sirius, one for James, and, surprisingly, one for me. I immediately chucked both Sirius's and James's on the fire. (Lily, who was talking animatedly with Dorcas, Mary, and a second year called Alice, threw me a questioning look, so I told that it was none of her business.) James had had several letters from Sirius's 'family' – most of the ones that we had read were awful, just like the previous one. However, all the bad letters always came from the bigger, tamer owl – something the other two hadn't picked up on yet. I didn't dwell on it though, as the small owl – Athena, I think she was called – started pecking me, angry that I'd disregarded the letters.

I knew it was foolish to read it, but I couldn't help being curious. I couldn't open it in front of the others, though. I'd have to wait until they were asleep, which would probably take forever.

I ran up the stairs into our dormitory, where I quickly hid the letter in the bottom of the trunk. Peter was already asleep but James and Sirius were both sitting on Sirius's bed. To my dismay, James hadn't managed to calm Sirius down at all, and Sirius was actually crying. I heard something about 'promises', and then Sirius said that someone else that I didn't know said that it didn't matter about houses. It was all a bit 'she said, he said', and I felt very confused, which was weird, as I was supposed to be the clever one.

"I'll tell you later," James mouthed at me. Then he resumed the impossible task of trying to calm Sirius down.

"Sirius," I said. "Why do you keep reading those letters?"

"I don't read all of them, just some of them," said Sirius, wiping his eyes on the back of his sleeve.

"But the one's you do read are all horrible. Can't you just assume they're all the same?" James asked.

"Before I started," Sirius sobbed, "my Brother said he would write to me. I thought maybe one of the letters might be from him, and not from Mother and Father, but they're all from Mother and they're all horrible. Mother said he hates me now, and he promised that it didn't matter about houses. Obviously he didn't mean Gryffindor."

James allowed Sirius to cry for a bit before starting to joke around to get him to laugh. Neither of us really knew what to do to cheer him up – we were both 'only children' and therefore didn't know the slightest thing about brothers.

…..

_AN: Guess whose point of view it is. Actually, it's fairly obvious, but guess anyway. I hope you like this. Sirius is upset because he thinks his brother hates him, and Regulus is upset because Sirius hasn't written to him. Oh dear. My last Author's note still stands, so any information is helpful._

_Please review._


	20. Chapter 20: Summer

_Disclaimer: I don't own it and never will._

_AN: Thanks for all the reviews everyone. They are really appreciated and I take them all into account. I even listened to the advice of my nine-year-old sister. By the way, the previous chapter was Remus's point of view. _

_I want to get onto Regulus's first year, so there will be bigger gaps in time between chapters, so that I can cover it in three chapters. Regulus can't really do anything interesting when he is stuck in the house on his own anyway. The story will be more dramatic at Hogwarts._

**Chapter Twenty: Summer**

James Potter must be a really amazing person. Sirius was risking everything, including the wrath of Mother, to write letters to him, even though he didn't write to me at all during the school year. I think Mother must have said not to write letters to me in one of her letters to him – it is much harder to confiscate letters going away from home than towards home. I was a little gutted that Sirius hadn't sent me a Birthday card or present, but it is a bit difficult to send me those when you know Mother is watching the post!

I guessed James was also more fun than me because he was Sirius's age and not two years younger. I remembered last year when Sirius had had to help me climb on all the rocks at the seaside – I bet James Potter didn't need Sirius to do that. Also, James Potter was allowed to play on broomsticks. Sirius loved broomsticks but, until recently, I hadn't been allowed on one. I wondered if he would want to play with me on the new broomstick Father had given me for my tenth Birthday. It was exactly the same as Sirius's!

I knocked on Sirius's bedroom door but unfortunately there was no answer. I pushed the door open gently and peered around it. Sirius was sitting on the bed writing another letter. He looked up at me, scowling.

I faltered. Why was he scowling at me? All I wanted was to play quidditch with him, so what was wrong?

"Siri?" I asked. I hoped Mother hadn't told him off for writing the letters.

"Go away," he said.

"Can you play Quidditch with me please?" I said. Father had told me that please was a magic word – I hoped it would work.

"No," said Sirius. Okay, so maybe 'please' wasn't a magic word. I knew that if one of the Lestranges didn't get their way they usually used a spell called 'imperio', but that was illegal and Sirius would play properly if I used it – it made people walk like zombies. Actually, I didn't have a wand so it wouldn't have worked anyway.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Just because," said Sirius.

"Because what?" I asked. Sirius wasn't making any sense.

"Because you'll fall off and hurt yourself and start crying and then I'll get the blame for it," said Sirius.

"No I won't! I've been practising," I said. "I'm as good as you are!"

"When would that be? You've only just had it, and you're not allowed to practise on your own. I doubt Father would do it with you, and Cissy doesn't like broomsticks."

"At Becky's house. She had a spare broom like my new one because Macmillan gave it to her. She let me have a go on it and I'm really good," I explained.

"I'm still not playing with you, Regulus."

"Please, please, please, please, please, pleeeeeeeeeease, Siri!"

"No! You didn't want to play with me all school year so why do you care now? Just go and play with Cissy or someone and leave me alone!" Sirius shouted. He stood up, grabbed hold of me, pushed me out of the room and slammed the door. I slid down it and sat down on the floor outside his bedroom. I waited a while and then tried again.

"Please Sirius. Please. I've got no one else to play with!" I said through the door. Sirius was wrong if he thought I didn't want to play with him all of last year. I wanted to, but he wasn't there to play with. I did write to him – I thought that would have been enough – but it wasn't.

"Go away! You've got plenty of friends to play with!" Sirius shouted at me.

I wanted to shout back. I wanted to say that none of my friends were like Sirius was – none of them were my brother, but I knew he wouldn't understand. He would just hate me more if I shouted back. I figured the best thing to do would be to let him get all of his anger at me out and not shout back.

…..

To my surprise, Andromeda wanted to play Quidditch with me. I hadn't thought she'd have wanted to because she wasn't on her house team and spent most of her time reading. Then again, I spent most of my time reading too. She taught me a new Quidditch move called a wronski feint, which was really hard because you had to dive really steeply. I mastered it though and my cousin was very proud of me.

It started raining so we took the broomsticks inside. Flying indoors was against the rules so we put the brooms in the side shed before going into the main house. Mother and Father were sitting in the room with the family tree tapestry in it.

"Father, Andromeda taught me how to do a wonky feint!" I said excitedly.

"Wronski feint, Reg," my cousin corrected.

"Oh yeah."

"Isn't that a bit dangerous, Andromeda?" said my Father. "Little Regulus could have seriously hurt himself!"

I didn't know why everyone thought I'd fall off – I was good at flying, wasn't I? Then again, I doubt Father had ever bothered to watch me fly so he wouldn't know. I hoped my cousin wouldn't get into trouble.

"Uncle, Regulus is really good at flying. You should come outside and see when it stops raining." I whispered a 'thank you' to her for sticking up for me against Father.

"Its still dangerous. You don't know how to do a cushioning spell yet or how to stop him hitting the ground. If there was a bit of wind, he could have fallen off the broom from very high up. I don't want you doing that again," said Father. It was nice to know they were talking as if I wasn't in the room.

"Yes Uncle," said Andromeda.

"And you," said my Father, now talking to me, "should know better than to be playing on broomsticks without proper supervision. I don't want you on that broom again for the duration of the summer holidays, understand?"

"Yes, Father," I said.

"Good boy. Now run along and fetch Sirius down for dinner."

….

_AN: Thanks to everyone for reviewing. In some of the earlier chapters, I made references to asthma attacks, which is one of the reasons why Regulus's parents are very protective of him – more so than they are of Sirius. Regulus is also a lot more prone to accidents although he is very capable on a broomstick. Sirius meanwhile is still angry with Regulus because of what it said in his Mother's letters._

_Please review._


	21. Chapter 21: The Attic

_Disclaimer: I am not J., but it says on her website that she appreciates fanfiction and is glad that the 'Harry Potter' series has inspired so many people._

_AN: Thanks for reviewing. All comments are welcome. This happens in September or October after Cissy has started Hogwarts._

**Chapter Twenty One: The Attic**

For the first time ever, I felt truly alone. Mother and Father were both out: Father was at the Ministry and Mother was having tea with the Rosier family. Bella had been married over a year ago and was now living full time with her husband and Sirius and both of my other two cousins were now at Hogwarts. Cissy had been a good girl and made her parents proud by being sorted into Slytherin.

Unable to play Quidditch, banned from talking to Kreacher, and having finished the Victorian novel Steph had given me to read, I went upstairs to the attic to find something to do. It had been years since I'd last been there, and I'd learnt then not to touch anything in case it was dark magic. Last time I had found a weird looking necklace, which when I stupidly put it on, tried to strangle me. If Cissy hadn't been with me to shout for help, I might have died then and there, aged just six.

I opened the door cautiously. Even though the house was empty and there was no chance of getting caught, it still felt very naughty. I knew that if anything did happen, there would be no one there to save me.

The room was dark and was in much the same haphazard condition that it had been in four years ago. Old paintings, old furniture, jewellery, and unidentified objects lay all over the floor. I decided not to touch any of them, and headed over to the large cupboard in the corner. I opened the door to see what was in there and nearly fell back in surprise at what came out.

It looked like Sirius. No, it was Sirius; only he looked ill like he'd been tortured. I wondered how he had got there since he was supposed to be at Hogwarts.

I backed away slightly, but Sirius walked towards me. As he got closer, I could see cuts on his arms and on his legs. If he lifted up his shirt, I'm sure I would have seen bruises or deeper wounds on him.

"Reg, how could you let them do this to me?" he said.

"I didn't know. What happened?" I asked.

"Mother," he said. He didn't need to explain any further; I knew what had happened anyway – but he did. "It's all your fault Reg. You messed up, and look what they did to me."

"I didn't mean to."

"No, I don't suppose you did. But it happened didn't it? It's your fault. I hate you," said Sirius.

"You don't mean that. You can't hate me – brothers are supposed to love each other whatever happens," I told him.

"Maybe in your messed up little world, that's what happens, but in real life people aren't like that. I hate you so grow up and face the real world."

I didn't know what to say that. Sirius was wrong – I would always treat Sirius like a brother no matter what, even if he didn't treat me like one. I felt a tear on my cheek and put a handkerchief to my face to remove it. When I looked up again, Sirius had disappeared and in his place stood Cissy.

She wore the white dress with a baby pink sash around it that she had worn at my tenth birthday party, but the skirt of the dress was torn and there was blood on her knees. She looked very dirty and her hair was a mass of birds' nest, which was odd because Cissy always tried to look neat and tidy.

"Reggie please help me," she whispered. I stepped forward to do so, but just as I reached out, she disappeared. In her place stood Bella and Rodolphus. Rodolphus looked exactly the same as normal but Bella's hair was more ragged than usual and her eyes held a crazed look. In her arms she held my muggle friend Stephannie, who was unconscious and bleeding. Rodolphus had hold of Ryan from behind, and was holding a wand to his neck.

"Bella?" I asked. Her only response was to throw my friends body down onto the floor. I rushed to her side to check her pulse. Luckily she was still alive.

"What did you do to her?" I shouted at Rodolphus, who was grinning like a maniac.

"Nothing," he laughed. "Ask her." He pointed at Bella. I looked in her direction. She was laughing too!

"I just taught her a lesson, that's all, Reg. I didn't know you liked muggles," she said. I wanted to punch her, but she was out of my reach and held a wand. "Aww, does little Reggie like muggles? Does he want to pwotect them fwom nasty Death Eaters?" she mocked.

I stood up and tried to hit her but she was quicker than me. "Crucio," she whispered. The pain wasn't as intense as it was when Rodolphus did it, but it was enough to make me scream in pain. It wasn't just the fact that it hurt either – it was that my own cousin was doing it. I screamed and screamed, and wished I'd never gone up into the attic alone. I wished I'd stayed in my room, and drawn yet another of Sirius and me playing at the Quidditch world cup together to hang on the wall. But that didn't make it stop hurting. It went on for about ten minutes before someone intervened.

"Riddikulus," shouted someone behind me. The Bellatrix and Rodolphus, and the muggles disappeared. I collapsed onto the floor shaking, but someone grabbed my arm.

"What on earth are you doing up here on your own, Regulus?" shouted my Uncle Cygnus. "There are so many dangerous things up here! If I hadn't come here looking for your Mother and happened to here you, you could have died!"

I tried to tell him that I was only exploring and that I hadn't meant to touch anything bad, but I couldn't. I still didn't understand why all those people had appeared and why they had all been hiding in the cupboard. I think my uncle noticed that I wasn't in any state to answer him.

"Regulus? It's okay. They're all gone now - it was only a boggart."

He picked me up and squeezed me in a small hug. Then my Uncle carried me downstairs to give me a lecture all about boggarts.

…..

_AN: The people don't actually disappear, but Regulus collapses and so doesn't see Cygnus Black's fear. A boggart can do the same things that its real life counterpart can do, but the magic is not as strong, which is why Bella's Cruciatus curse is not as strong as Rodolphus's. If Bellatrix had actually put someone that age under the curse for ten minutes, they would probably have gone insane like the Longbottoms did. Also, real Bella would not have done that to her cousin – this is just what Regulus fears might happen if she carries on down the road she is going._

_Did any one else watch '50 Greatest Harry Potter Moments'? I did and I love the scene with the car and the train best. You have to love Ron's face!_

_Please review._


	22. Chapter 22: Alphard Black

_Disclaimer: I don't own 'Harry Potter'._

_AN: I hope you liked the previous chapter with the Boggart. Thanks for all the reviews. For those of you who read my other story, the redheaded brothers participating in the order meeting in 1979 are not Fred and George; they are Molly's brothers. _

**Chapter Twenty Two: Alphard Black**

After my scare with the Boggart, I didn't venture into the attic again – not even with Father or my Uncle to accompany me. Uncle Cygnus had told me that Boggarts take the form of whatever thing you fear the most. That meant I was most scared of Sirius and Cissy being hurt because of something I'd done, and of Bella turning on me.

Time went slowly. My parents didn't trust me at all after the incident so when they went out, they would either offload me to Aunt Druella, or lock me in my room. My Aunt was all right; she was like a grown-up version of Cissy but was just a bit more boring. It was better that being locked in my bedroom though, because I had full range of the house.

It was on one of those occasions that I found myself in my Aunt and Uncle's library. Thought their house was smaller than ours, their library was much bigger. There were endless isles of bookshelves, all going upwards till they reached the ceiling. On some of them, you had to use a ladder and a walkway to get to them. I think the space had been charmed to be bigger on the inside because I wasn't sure how the library fit in their house!

Many of the books were charmed or blood-warded against unworthy people. Some even tried to bite me – I worked out that you had to stroke the spine of 'The Monster Book of Monsters' to open it, although that was probably one of the least harmful books. If Sirius had been there, he would have found it hilarious. I made a mental note to send it to him with a note attached saying it was to be used for pranking his dorm mates – I'd heard from Andromeda that his friend Remus liked reading. It was quite an interesting book with lots of interesting creatures in it.

I let the 'Monster Book of Monsters' have free reign of the library. It was quite amusing to watch it trying to eat the other books, and it didn't matter much because Aunt Druella was very good at household charms. I also found a book about muggles in the creatures' section and wondered why it was put with the monsters. I settled down to read it to find out why.

"I wouldn't read that if I were you. It paints muggles in a rather bad light," said a deep voice somewhere in close proximity to me. I looked up from the book to see a man that looked like Uncle Cygnus that wasn't Uncle Cygnus, towering above me.

"Uncle Alphard? What are you doing here?" I asked. I hardly ever saw him because he was always travelling and Mother didn't like him very much. I wasn't sure why she didn't like him; he was always very kind to me.

"Am I not allowed to visit my brother and sister in law?" he said. I supposed he had just as much right to be here as I did – it wasn't my house either.

"I guess you are, but I hardly ever see you. I was just surprised," I said.

"That's understandable. How come you're in here and not playing outside on that new broom of yours?"

"I'm not allowed. My parents don't trust me to do anything by myself anymore," I said.

"That's ridiculous. When I was your age, Cygnus and your Father and I used to play Quidditch all the time!" said my Uncle. I thought it was silly that I wasn't allowed to play, but then I didn't have anyone to look out for me and make sure I didn't fall off. I didn't have a little brother and a second cousin to play with. I told him that, and he said he'd play with me for a bit.

I played on my barely-used broomstick with my Uncle watching me, until it was the time of day when my Father came home and I was expected to go home too. Uncle Alphard thought I was very good on a broomstick just like Andromeda had thought I was, and told me so. Then, when he took me home, he told Father how good I was, and after a lot of talking, Father agreed that I could go flying more often.

…..

A few months later it was my Birthday. I wished Sirius could have been there, but it was term time so he couldn't have been there even if he had wanted to. He hadn't sent me anything – not even a quick note to acknowledge that he had received the copy of 'The Monster Book of Monsters' that I had sent him. I think Uncle Alphard was the only one who noticed that I was at all upset about it.

I wasn't having a birthday party that year - not because I wasn't allowed, but because I didn't want to. Mother always made me invite ten people or more and I couldn't think of ten whole people that I actually wanted to spend the whole day with. Instead, my two Uncles and Aunt Druella were taking me and Becky to see a live Quidditch match. Mother and Father were not attending because Mother hated Quidditch and Father had important business to do. I was a little disappointed that they weren't there on my special day.

I insisted that we sat right at the top of the stands because that was where the best view was. My Aunt looked a little green as she looked down at the pitch below, but she didn't say anything because she didn't want to ruin everyone else's day. I noticed, however, and told her to look up instead of down.

I didn't support either of the two teams, but the match was exciting anyway. Becky and I had a bet on which team would win. Becky's team won, so she ended up with an ice cream afterwards. Overall, it was the best fun I'd had in a long time and it almost didn't matter that I couldn't share it with my brother.

…..

_AN: Hoped you enjoyed this. I wanted to put Sirius's Uncle Alphard (should I correct this to 'Alp hard', 'Alpha' or 'Alphorn' – stupid computer, or how about I add it to the dictionary) into the story because I think something would be missing from the story if I just introduced him later when he died. I also wanted to show that Regulus's two favourite hobbies so far are reading and Quidditch, and that he likes both of his Uncles. He is also disheartened that his parents hardly want to spend any time with him at all, and I wanted to show that his parents do not have as much influence on Regulus as Sirius thinks that they did._

_Please review._


	23. Chapter 23: Sorting Hat

_Disclaimer: I don't own Hogwarts, or any of the family names mentioned. I don't own Sirius or Regulus, Bella or Narcissa._

_AN: For those of you that have only just come on here, Chapter 22 was put up this morning, so read that one first. And please review it._

**Chapter Twenty-Three: Sorting Hat**

"I don't care! I hate Regulus!" Sirius shouted at my cousin through the doors of the compartment he was sharing with his friends. I knew Andromeda was just trying to help, but she was making things worse between Sirius and I. Now Sirius thought I was even more of a baby, for getting ill on the platform and thought I was a nuisance. He probably didn't hate me and was just extremely annoyed with my cousin for interrupting his and James's conversation.

Andromeda glanced at me before turning back to Sirius. "Please Sirius. He hasn't done anything wrong! At least not intentionally!"

She was right about the 'intentional' bit. I hadn't meant to have a coughing fit because of all the smoke coming out of the train, but it had embarrassed Sirius in front of all of his friends.

"Just go away!" came Sirius's reply. Of course it hadn't helped that me and Sirius hadn't spoken a decent word to each other all summer. Sirius had been far too busy, and every time I'd knocked on his door, he had told me to go away. He hadn't even wanted to play Quidditch even though Father had finally agreed that I could play the game without any adult supervision.

"Fine!" she said, and walked back to where she had left me. "Are you okay now, Reggie?"

The truthful answer was "no," but I told her "yes" anyway. I didn't want her to think I was weak and stupid too.

"Let's go and find you someone to talk to then," she said. I wasn't sure what was wrong with talking to 'her' but maybe she wanted to sit with her own friends, who were much older than me and had all done much more exciting things during the holidays. Then again, maybe she thought I wanted to talk to people my own age instead of family.

"Look, there's Becky. Do you want to go and sit with her?" she asked. I nodded, and my cousin slid open the compartment door for me.

I walked in and looked around, before asking if I could sit next to Becky. She replied in the affirmative. There were five other people in the compartment and, to my surprise, one of them was my muggle friend Stephannie. I had received a letter from her telling me that she was going to Hogwarts too, but it was still quite shocking to see her sitting in front of me already wearing her Hogwarts robes. Two of the other people – a blonde haired boy, and a girl with sparkly blue eyes and black curly hair – were obviously first years from their robes. The other two were not wearing any uniforms.

"Hi, what's your name?" asked the black haired girl. "Is that your sister?" she added, pointing at my cousin.

"My name's Regulus or Reggie. That's my cousin Andromeda. I also have a cousin called Cissy in second year, and a brother called Siri in third year."

"Cool, I don't have any siblings or cousins my age. My name's Nicola Ravenclaw by the way. My great great great great great great…" I lost count of how many greats she said, "great grandfather was Rowena Ravenclaw's elder brother." She seemed quite proud of her lineage and I didn't blame her for that. I decided to let my parents think she was a direct descendant of the Hogwarts founder and hope they hadn't read 'Hogwarts: A History' in detail enough to remember that he lineage died out centuries ago.

"I thought you said he was your great great great…" began the boy sitting next to her.

"Shut up, it doesn't matter. If you must know, it's fifty generations ago," said Nicola.

"My name's Marcus. Did you say Narcissa Black was your cousin?" asked the other boy. He had dark hair the colour of the Bournville chocolate bars that I'd eaten once or twice at Steph's house, and was wearing glasses.

"Yeah, but she doesn't like it when I call her that. She says it makes her sound like a grown up or a daffodil. Why did you want to know?"

"She's in my class, so I was just wondering if that was whom you meant," he said.

"Oh, are you in Slytherin house then?" I asked.

"Yeah. I'm the only not proper pureblood in our year in Slytherin. Don't tell anyone that, though, because they all think I'm pureblood."

"Are you half blood? You seem quite normal. All the half bloods I've met so far are really weird," I asked him.

"That's because the only half blood you've ever met is my sister's boyfriend," said Becky.

"My Mum's half blood and my Dad's a pureblood, so I'm neither half blood or pure blood."

"So you're a three-quarter blood then?" asked Steph.

"I guess so," said Marcus.

I didn't think there was such a thing as a 'three quarter blood' in most Slytherins' vocabulary. However, that was probably because most Slytherins were pureblood and didn't talk to anyone who wasn't. Over the rest of the journey, I learnt that the blonde boy was called Robert and was also in first year. The girl with the light brown curly hair sitting by Marcus was called 'Cassandra' or 'Sandy' and was a second year Ravenclaw.

About half way through the journey, Becky accidentally told everyone that Mother would kill me and Sirius if I wasn't put in Slytherin, forcing me to correct her and tell everyone the truth. They were all shocked. Apparently, threatening to use the Cruciatus curse on both of your children was not a thing that happened in most pureblood households.

…..

The other four first years and I were separated from the others when we got to Hogsmeade station. An enormous man called Hagrid said that all the first years had to go to Hogwarts in boats on the lake. There were four people to a boat, so I sat with Robert, and the girls went in another boat, so that we would still be by someone we knew.

All the boats filled up quite quickly until only two people were left on the platform. Unfortunately the only boat with two spaces in it was our boat. A girl with a face like a pug that looked as if it had been jammed repeatedly in the door, and a fat spiteful looking girl got it. They're names were Grace Goyle and Millicent Crabbe respectively, and they were two of the people that Mother had tried to force me to be friends with. At least she hadn't tried arranging me a marriage to one of them, though she'd tried to do just that with Becky. Becky wasn't nearly as ugly or horrible as them, but I couldn't imagine us living in a house and having children together – that was just wrong!

Just as we were nearing the shore, I decided to tell them a little story my brother had once told me about the giant squid and how it liked to eat people. I myself knew that the squid was perfectly harmless but they didn't. They screamed and thrashed and capsized the boat.

All four of us fell in. It was cold, wet, and horrible and my clothes weighed me down, but both Robert and I managed to swim to the shore. The girls were not so lucky. The two of us stood shivering on the shore, laughing our heads off as Grace and Millicent had to be rescued by Hagrid. I don't think Hagrid was very pleased with us.

…..

As we walked into the Hogwarts entrance hall, I realised that Robert and I were not the only ones that had managed to pick up unpleasant company. Nicole, Becky and Steph were now being forced to listen to a smarmy looking blonde boy tell them all about his encounter with a Hungarian Horntail and how he had managed to save the city of Manchester form being burnt to a crisp.

Luckily the annoying boy shut up at the arrival of the Hogwarts ghosts.

"Good day, Sir," I said to the Fat Friar and Bloody Baron as they floated past. The Hufflepuff ghost greeted me in reply, but the Baron said nothing. Most of the other children were too shocked to say anything, but soon enough, we were led into the Great Hall, where even _I _couldn't help gasping in delight at the sight awaiting us. You just can't picture it right from the description in 'Hogwarts: A History'.

It was then that I saw my first glimpse of the sorting hat. It hadn't been what I'd been expecting at all. Bella had told me all sorts of nasty things that they did to test what house you went in. She said that there was a different kind of monster every year that we had to defeat. You got sorted depending on how you defeated it, and if you didn't you were sent home.

I tried to imagine what sort of monster could be in the hat. Maybe it was a Boggart – Uncle Cygnus said that they could get into very small places.

Just then the hat opened its mouth and began to sing. It was a strange song about the four houses at Hogwarts. I was relieved that all we had to do was try on the hat.

A tall strict-looking woman began calling out names. Mine was first because it was near the start of the alphabet.

"Black, Regulus," she called. I walked timidly to the stool where the hat was. Everyone in the hall was staring at me making me feel most uncomfortable as she placed the hat over my head.

The hat went over my eyes and I couldn't see a thing. Then the hat began to talk.

"Well, well, another Black. Now where to put you…"

"Just put me in Slytherin. I don't want Sirius getting hurt."

"Oh, being noble are you, perhaps you would be better off in Gryffindor."

"No, no. Please don't. Mother will kill us if you do that."

"Perhaps not then. You seem very loyal. What about Hufflepuff?"

"No! Just put me in Slytherin."

"You won't be very happy in that house. Your intellect seems much more suited for Ravenclaw."

"Please, Mr Sorting Hat, whatever your name is! Please put me in Slytherin!"

"Well alright, if you must, though I can't see you being very cunning or devious. You do have the ability to hide your intentions though. Perhaps that will be enough to get by. I'll put you in SLYTHERIN!"

I sighed with relief and went to next to Cissy and opposite Marcus. I glanced at Sirius, but he threw me a death glare, and looked away.

We were soon joined by Millicent Crabbe, and a boy called Barty Crouch. I heard his Father was quite high standing in the Ministry, so I guessed my parents would want me to be friends with him. Three other boys and two girls, including Grace, were also sorted into Slytherin.

Robert was sorted into Hufflepuff as soon as the hat touched his head. The same happened with Nicole and Becky, except that they were sorted into Ravenclaw. Steph went to Gryffindor table, where she next to a redheaded girl around Sirius's age.

The only person who took as long to sort as me was the smarmy blond boy, whose name I learnt was Gilderoy Lockhart. He was sorted into Ravenclaw, and sat near Becky, who scooted away from him as soon as he sat down.

…..

Later that night in the dormitory, I couldn't help wishing I'd let the hat put me in Ravenclaw instead. The only people in the whole house that were nice were Cissy and Marcus and they were both in older years. The people in my dormitory kept saying horrible things about Sirius, like it was his fault what house he was in. They called him a 'Blood Traitor' and when I told them to 'shut up' and to stop talking about my brother, they just laughed at me.

I settled down in the bed, and rummaged in my bag for Sirius II. Ever since Sirius had started Hogwarts, I hadn't been able to sleep without it. The other people in my dorm laughed at me and Barty actually grabbed hold of the toy dog and ripped its head off.

I didn't sleep well that night.

…..

_AN: Reggie is finally at Hogwarts, though I don't think he is going to like his dorm mates much. They're all future Death Eaters, and they're all horrible. However, it is better to put up with it than to have Sirius being hurt. I've probably messed up the ages a bit here, but I want these people in the same year as Regulus._

_Please review._


	24. Chapter 24: Plan

_Disclaimer: I don't own the 'Harry Potter' books or associated characters. All characters not mentioned in the books are my own but their Surnames belong to J.K. Rowling._

_AN: Thanks for the reviews. I'm glad you like my characterisation of Regulus. Oh no, now I sound like Pollyanna – don't own her either. Please read the Authors note at the bottom of the page after you have read this because it gives some more information about the characters._

**Chapter Twenty-Four: Plan**

I felt awful when I awoke the next morning. Last night I had finally fallen asleep at four, only to be rudely awoken at seven by Evan Rosier and Bart Crouch, who were by far the loudest and rudest people I had ever met. Even after they had finished ranting on about Sirius, and how they 'hoped I wouldn't be like that filthy blood traitor', I hadn't been able to fall asleep properly.

I followed the two of them out of the common room. I held onto the railings as I went upstairs because I was dizzy and tired and knew from experience that falling down staircases was not fun at all. Evan and Barty sat down next to one of Evan's brothers, who was in Sirius's year. He was the one who had pushed Sirius off his broom on his first flying lesson. I glanced around for Cissy but saw she was sitting by Lucius Malfoy and the oldest of the Rosier family, who were both fifth years. I didn't want to sit by them so I sat next to Marcus, who was on his own.

"You look like a zombie, Reggie," said Marcus. I guessed he saw the black circles under my eyes from getting no sleep whatsoever.

"I couldn't sleep," I said. I glanced across at Gryffindor table where my brother sat laughing with his friends. None of them looked like they hadn't slept properly. I watched as James Potter told some kind of joke and my brother laughed.

"You watching your brother? I bet you wish he still laughed like that with you, don't you," Marcus asked me.

"How did you know that was what I was thinking?"

"I can read you like an open book, Reggie. You need to learn to conceal your emotions."

"But then Sirius wouldn't know I missed him," I said.

"Oh yeah."

"I wish I could just be James Potter instead of me. He has nice parents, he's on the Quidditch team, and he can make my brother laugh," I said, gazing longingly at the back of James Potter's head.

"If that's what you want, I've got an idea. I'll meet you in the library after lunch," said Marcus. I nodded and said that I would.

Just then, our conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the post and by a stout old man giving out the timetables.

"That's Professor Slughorn," whispered Marcus. "He's head of Slytherin house and teaches potions. It's best if you suck up to him – it should be easy – he likes to collect people and you're a Black. He'll love you."

I glanced at the timetable. I had transfiguration followed by potions with Hufflepuff before lunch. Then I looked at the pile of letters the owl had delivered.

_Dear Regulus,_

_Well done for getting into Slytherin. Your Mother and I are so proud of you. Of course we wouldn't have minded if you were in Ravenclaw instead but it is nice to keep up the family tradition of being in Slytherin. _

_I hope you are getting on well with your housemates and have made some new friends. I heard that Rebecca has made it into Ravenclaw. I hope you still continue to be friends with her. Tell me how the lessons go and…_

That letter was quite nice and friendly and was written by Father. Aunt Druella and Uncle Cygnus had also written me a similar letter, and I had received another one from Uncle Alphard telling me of his latest adventure. The letter from Mother, however, was not so friendly and said lots of horrible things about Sirius and what she would have done if I had accidentally been sorted into Ravenclaw. It was clear that she and Father had not consulted one another at all before writing the letters. She hadn't even considered the possibility of me being in the other houses, and I dreaded to think what the letter would have said if I had been in Hufflepuff or Gryffindor. I knew how she treated Sirius for being in Gryffindor and knew that it would be a whole lot worse if it had been me.

I made my way out of the Great Hall and towards the Grand Staircase. The staircases kept moving and I had no clue how to get to my first lesson. I saw a portrait of a little boy that looked a little bit like me and decided to ask it where Transfiguration was. I followed the portrait's advice, and entered a classroom already full of first year Slytherins.

I sat on an empty bench away from them because they were still talking about 'blood traitors' and looked towards the front where a large, grey tabby sat on the Professors desk. It looked a bit like Sekhmet (Becky's cat), except for the dark markings around its eyes that made it look as if it were wearing glasses.

Suddenly the cat leapt off the desk and turned into the strict looking teacher I had seen the previous night. Perhaps she had read the book I gave Sirius about how to turn into an animal, or maybe she already knew because she was a teacher. I wondered if we would get to learn how to do it and put my hand up to ask.

"Yes?" she asked, seeing me.

"Professor, will we be learning how to turn into an animal and back at Hogwarts?"

"No, though you may choose to become an animagus when you are older, it is not an the syllabus. Today, you will be learning how to turn matchsticks into needles."

She introduced herself to the class as Professor McGonagall. She then explained the basis for the theory of how transfiguration worked. I wrote it all down in my new Transfiguration notebook, but no one else got out any parchment or quills. The spell we learnt was easy. I managed it on the first try and then turned around to help Millicent and Grace, who were obviously struggling. They didn't like being helped.

"Shut up you insufferable know-it-all!" shouted the ungraceful Grace, loosing the five points I'd managed to gain for doing it correctly.

I pocketed the needle and Professor McGonagall gave me a larger matchstick and asked me to change it backwards and forwards between being a needle and being a matchstick. I managed it, and earned another five points. At the end of the lesson, I got to keep both the needles. I asked the Professor if she had any black thread. She threw me a questioning look, but gave me some anyway.

The next lesson was Potions. I didn't get lost because I followed the other people from my house. They were all in front of me, so when I walked into the classroom they had all chosen their potions partners. Luckily, there was a space next to Robert, so I sat next to him.

I learnt ten minutes into the lesson that Robert was what my Mother would call a 'hopeless case' when it came to potions. Fortunately for him, I had read enough of the textbook to know how to correct his blunders so, by the time we had finished, our potion was definitely the best one in the class. We won five points each for our respective houses – I didn't bother telling him that I'd done most of the work because that would just embarrass my friend. I think the Professor knew, however, and he invited me to his 'slug club'.

After that, I had lunch and went off to meet Marcus in the library. He was sat at one of the tables next to Sandy, and they were both flicking through an enormously thick book. I sat down next to them, and leaned across to look at them.

"Felix Felicis, no too hard… Veritaserum, wouldn't do any good at all," he muttered as we flicked through the book. "Amortentia – why would I want that? Oh, got it. Polyjuice potion, that's what you need."

I glanced at the page in the book. It looked like a very difficult potion but it allowed some one to look like somebody else. I could guess what Marcus's plan was and I couldn't see how it was going to work.

"So if I become James Potter for the day, what happens to the real James Potter?"

"I've already thought of that. James Potter is very fond of a certain Lily Evans, so all we have to do is have someone turn into Lily and take him off somewhere out the way. Then there will just be the real Lily and you on the scene and no double people."

It made sense and was a good plan, except for a few tiny details.

"How are we going to get all of the ingredients?" I asked.

"Oh, that's easy," said Sandy. "Slughorn loves us, so all we have to do is ask him if we can make some advanced potions for extra practice. He won't suspect a thing!"

"Then we can just brew the potion in our spare time right in front of him – he might even help us as long as he doesn't know we're going to drink it!" added Marcus.

They'd definitely thought everything through. I was glad I had friends that knew what they were doing and wanted to help.

…..

Later that night I was left alone in the dormitory. The others were all in the common room playing some kind of card game. I found the needle and thread from Transfiguration, and picked up Sirius II from the corner where Barty had thrown him. It was time to do some mending.

When I had finished, Sirius II had a bit of a wobbly head but other that that he was fine. You could no longer see the white stuffing coming out. I climbed into bed and hugged him under the covers. Hopefully no one else would notice.

I slept a lot better that night.

…..

_AN: Millicent and Grace are related to Crabbe and Goyle in Harry Potter's year. Millicent has an older brother, two years older than Sirius, who will be Vincent Crabbe's father. Grace Goyle is actually related to Pansy Parkinson as well, hence the description of her in the previous chapter. Evan Rosier is a Death Eater that was killed in the first war, and it is noted that he hung around with Snape, Mulciber and Avery. In this story, the Mulciber that's mentioned in the books is in Snape's year, but his younger brother and Avery will be Regulus's other dorm mates and will be referred to by their surnames. Regulus's dorm mates are Barty Crouch Junior, Evan Rosier, Mulciber and Avery. _

_I forgot to mention it in the previous chapter, but Macmillan is in Regulus's year and is in Hufflepuff house. The redheaded girl mentioned is Lily Evans. The portrait is of one of Regulus's ancestors - another boy called Regulus._

_Please Review._


	25. Chapter 25: Stupid Housemates

_Disclaimer: I don't own the 'Harry Potter' series._

_AN: This takes place the day after the previous chapter. There's a little extra something at the end. Thankyou for reviewing, and I hope you enjoy this…_

**Chapter Twenty-Five: Stupid Housemates**

"I still reckon this is the stupidest idea you've ever come up with. Worse than freeing the house elf! It's a newt level potion!" argued Steph, sitting on the end of my bed in the hospital wing. I still couldn't believe Professor Slughorn had actually allowed Marcus, Sandy and me to sweet talk him into letting us do it, but then we were all in his 'Slug Club' so he obviously liked us. Sometimes favouritism has an advantage.

"It's okay, the second years are helping, and the Professor said he would help if we needed it," I said. She wasn't happy when I told her our plan just after breakfast this morning – she said it was dangerous since I was apparently a 'walking disaster'. I wasn't. Mulciber was, and it was his stupid fault that I was stuck in the stupid hospital wing on only the second day of lessons.

Then again, he was in the hospital wing too, lying completely unconscious on the bed next to me.

The problem had started yesterday in potions, when Avery had discovered that Mulciber was even worse at potions than Robert was. I hadn't noticed because I had been busy doing my own potion, but the two of them had somehow managed to explode the cauldron and cover themselves in lurid pink gloop. Understandably Avery had told Mulciber that he never ever wanted to work with him again and in Herbology this morning had decided to work with Millicent. That had left me to work with Mulciber, who then decided to pull out a mandrake before I'd put the earmuffs on. I had fainted and was now in the hospital wing. My irritating partner had escaped unharmed but had managed to get burnt after setting fire to the desk when jabbing his wand at a feather that had been reluctant to float in charms class.

I glanced at him lying in the bed and hoped he wouldn't be such a nuisance with Devil's snare next week.

"What an idiot," said Steph. I couldn't agree more. Next herbology lesson, I would take my chances partnering with the Gryffindors like Steph. Would I rather be ridiculed by my housemates for talking to a 'Gryffindork' or risk disembodiment?

I sat up in the bed as Madam Pomphrey began poking me with her wand. She came to the conclusion that I was perfectly fine and that it would be best to hurry along before I missed any more lessons. Luckily I'd only missed one so far, and I already knew how to do 'Wingardium Leviosa' before hand anyway.

Steph noticed that Mulciber had stirred slightly. The two of us ran out of the hospital wing before he could wake up and see us together. When we got to the courtyard, we parted: Steph going to potions with Slughorn, and me heading towards the grounds for our first class flying lesson. This class was with Becky and the other Ravenclaws so I could easily get away with not talking to my housemates (Marcus had told me to make friends with them, but I still didn't like them very much).

I sandwiched myself between Becky and Nicola.

The flying part of the lesson was easy. All we had to do was make our broomsticks hover, and then climb on and fly about three feet off the ground. It was frustratingly dull but I understood that we had to start off easy because some people had never flown before and some people were scared of heights (like Grace who started screaming when her broomstick caught with the wind and floated at seven feet in the air).

"Why do we have to go so slow for the wusses and Mudbloods, Professor?" whined Barty.

"Mr Crouch, do not use that kind of language in lessons! Ten points from Slytherin!" shouted our flying instructor. I glared at Barty and he glared right back at me.

"But I could fly better than this when I was four, Professor."

"Well if you don't want to do this, don't come to the lesson," said the Professor. Barty stormed off back towards the castle and I was glad to be rid of him.

Of course, whilst all this was going on, she hadn't noticed that Evan had now speeded up considerably and was whizzing in and out of all the other broomsticks, trying to make the girls fall off. It was a good job that threats of being 'banned from flying if he didn't come down that instant' were enough to prevent disaster.

Apart from all that it was quite an uneventful day.

…..

_AN: Sorry nothing much happened. Regulus will get to have a perfect day with Sirius soon, and Becky will get to have quite an interesting chat with James. But first, Andromeda makes a rather terrifying discovery, and the only person she can talk to happens to be Regulus. Sorry that Regulus's dorm mates are being annoying. He will become more friendly with them later._

_Anyway, here is a little scene from a different chapter that I left out because Regulus didn't hear it. I've done it in a third person point of view because I wasn't sure whose view to put it in. Orion is Regulus's father. Cygnus and Alphard are the brothers of Regulus's mother, but both are Black's because Walburga and Orion are second cousins._

…..

**DELETED SCENE**

"Don't you think it is a little harsh not to allow him to play Quidditch?" Alphard Black had taken Orion into a little room off the hallway where Regulus wouldn't be able to here them.

"He's only ten," said Regulus's father.

"Yes, but we were much younger than that when we played on broomsticks. Don't you remember when we played 'bludgers' in the drawing room?"

Orion Black laughed, remembering the look on his Grandfather's face when he had caught them all and seen the state of the room. Then he was serious again. "Yes, and were our parents happy? No, they wouldn't let us do anything for weeks!"

"Yes, but I'm not suggesting you let him play indoors. He could play in the garden."

"Do you remember what happened when _we_ played in the garden?" said Regulus's father.

Alphard tried to think back to when they were all young. There were several hundred memories of playing Quidditch in the garden and he couldn't think of any that were bad. He wondered which one Orion was thinking about. "Which time?"

"The one when I fell off and broke my leg and wasn't allowed out of bed for months on end," said Orion. Oh yes, Alphard could certainly remember that incident. All the whining and complaining and reading stories to the irritating six-year-old were rather difficult to forget.

"Yes, but you were six then. Regulus is ten. He'll be going to Hogwarts next year."

"He's on his own. There's no one there to notice if he falls off. I have to work and Walburga wouldn't notice or care enough to take him to St Mungo's if he got hurt."

"But he's bored. I caught him playing with biting books in Cygnus's library! Do you really want him reading about Horcruxes and being cursed by dark books? I'm telling you it's going to be a lot harder to try and ban him from reading than to stop him playing Quidditch!" argued Alphard.

Orion thought about it. He didn't mention that the book Bellatrix had given to Regulus probably mentioned Horcruxes anyway, but he could see that Alphard has a point.

"Ok. He can play Quidditch as long as myself, you, Cygnus or Druella are watching him."

…..

_AN: That was just a little something extra for you that didn't fit in anywhere. Please review._


	26. Chapter 26: Prophecy?

_Disclaimer: Potter books are not mine. This time neither is the riddle. None of the characters in this chapter are mine._

_AN: If you make the characters slightly younger, then known events have to happen when they are at a younger age. If you don't like this, I did warn you. I think I did anyway. By the way, thanks to everyone who reviewed._

**Chapter Twenty-Six: Prophecy?**

The second years and I had almost finished brewing our potion but that wasn't what was on my mind today. At dinner, I had decided to sit with the other people in my dorm even though I still didn't like them that much. I know it hadn't been targeted at me and it was just talk, but something Evan Rosier had said about muggle borns, or 'Mudbloods' as he referred to them, had upset me. I needed to talk to someone – someone not in Slytherin.

I was now looking for someone stupid and self-important enough to help me into Ravenclaw common room. I knew that you had to answer some kind of riddle to get in there, but the problem was that I hadn't a clue where it was that I had to go. I was only a first year after all.

I spotted Lockhart and walked boldly up to him. I knew the guy was desperate for friends because no one had wanted to sit next to him since he had started bragging about his encounter with a fifty-foot basilisk in the second week of term.

"Hello. I heard you are a very knowledgeable wizard. You wouldn't happen to know the way back to the common room would you?" The poor boy gladly began walking, so glad that someone was talking to him that he didn't notice the colour of my robes. By the time we had arrived at the third floor and I had listened to the story of him capturing a Griffin, I began to wish I'd just asked Becky.

"People would like you more if you wrote all these stories down," I blurted. "And if you smiled more."

"What do you mean?" he asked. I couldn't tell him that writing was just a really good way to get him to shut up about himself.

"Well, some people feel intimidated when you talk to them. And girls like smiling. I know that because Cissy told me," I said. "Also, if you actually did some of those things, people would be more likely to talk to you. I'm taking 'Care of Magical Creatures' in third year, so if you take that too, you'll know all about Griffins and things and you'll actually be able to do all those things you've said you've done."

"Is it that obvious they're not true?"

"Yes, you've got the description of a Griffin completely wrong. They're not really much bigger than a hippogriff and they don't breathe fire - that's dragons. They're not really very vicious either."

"Oh."

Just then, I spotted my brother walking along with James, Peter and Remus. James and Sirius, both with dark hair and the exact same height, looked as if they could have been brothers. Remus was a couple of inches shorter, but still looked like he fitted with their group. Peter though, was a lot shorter and didn't look as if he belonged at all. I pulled Lockhart into an alcove so that we could listen to their conversation.

"I hate divination! I'd much rather do ancient runes or something instead. As if the first 'prophecy' wasn't bad enough?" said Sirius. Prophecy? I didn't know anything about a prophecy. My brother looked truly and thoroughly depressed.

"Which one, Sirius?" asked Peter.

"The one where the Professor said someone that loves me is going to die and I'm not going to realise they ever gave a damn about me until years later. Well something like that anyway," said Sirius.

"She might come out with some horrible stuff, but I don't think the subject's that bad," said James.

"That's because she said you and Remus were going to be happily married and have kids with someone you love!" Sirius said. "She didn't say anything like that to me. All she said today was that someone that should be close to me is going to die in 1979, and two more people in 1981! It could be the three of you!"

"Sirius, I'm not going to die that young. Besides, in 1979, we'll only just be out of school. If the first of what she said is true, Remus and I are going to get married. I don't know about Remus, but I plan on getting married and having kids a bit older than nineteen!" said James.

"I didn't know you could be so logical, James," said Remus.

"And the Professor said that they die trying to stop some dark wizard or something. Isn't that a good way to die?" said Peter. It did nothing to cheer Sirius up.

"Maybe it's someone in my family like Andromeda or Father, or maybe it's someone I haven't met yet," said Sirius. I was a bit miffed that he hadn't mentioned me, but maybe he didn't want to think about me dying. That must have been it. I did a quick calculation and realised that if the predictions meant me, I would die aged twenty or less. I sincerely hoped it wasn't me.

I listened as their conversation turned back to how to go about quitting a subject and taking up another halfway through the year. Then, when they had gone past us and were out of earshot, we continued our journey.

It was quite a long way to Ravenclaw common room – we had to walk up hundreds of staircases and corridors, including an enormous spiral staircase located in the tower itself. I was quite tired when we finally reached the portrait.

"Speak me with one, spell me with three;  
>Look through my window and surley you'll see;<p>

Forwards or backwards, I am still me," said the Portrait.

Hmm, a three letter word that reads the same forwards as it does backwards. Something to do with seeing.

"An eye," I said. The portrait swung open and let us both inside.

The Ravenclaw commonroom was a lot nicer than the Slytherin one. For one thing, it was actually warm rather than threatening to give it's inhabitants pneumonia. The furnishings were less grand, but they looked a lot more comfortable. It was like the difference between Becky's bedroom and my Mother's drawing room. In fact I could see Becky curled up on one of the armchairs, reading a novel. But it wasn't her I was looking for…

I spotted my cousin sitting in a corner chair with her knees up to her chest and arms around them like I sat when I was upset. She looked as if she was about to cry. I walked up to her and asked if she was alright, even though I could see that she wasn't. She just drew me into a hug and started crying.

I didn't know what to do; it was normally me that cried and Andromeda that comforted me!

"What happened?" I asked. She just continued crying, and I knew I would have to be patient if I was going to get an answer.

…..

_AN: I'm rather useless at riddles. I tried to find one in my dragonology book but their all about dragons and I didn't really want one about dragons. Anyway, the next chapter should be up soon, and I will be writing another chapter for my other stories now. I hope you enjoyed this._

_Please review._


	27. Chapter 27: Roles Reversed

_Disclaimer: I am not J. and so therefore I do not own the 'Harry Potter' books or any of the associated characters, spells, houses or locations. These, of course, include Hogwarts, Regulus and Andromeda Black, Ted and Nymphadora Tonks, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, and Lucius Malfoy. I also do not own Cadbury's chocolate or the 'Kissing' song. _

_AN: Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Please read and review this._

**Chapter Twenty Seven: Roles Reversed**

I don't know how long I sat cuddled up to my cousin in that chair. By now, almost everyone in the common room was staring at us. It was quite rude and made me feel very uncomfortable. Couldn't they tell that we just wanted to be left alone? If someone had been crying in Slytherin common room no one would have noticed or they wouldn't have cared if they had.

I'd never seen her so upset before – not even when we were small and Mother had killed a house elf right in front of us. To be honest, I wasn't really sure what to do. It was usually Andromeda that comforted me when I was upset, not the other way round. I lent her a handkerchief that I had in my back pocket for her to wipe her eyes on.

"What happened?" I asked. "Did somebody hurt you?" I hoped no one had hurt her. If they had, they would have me to answer to. I thought about all the people older than me at Hogwarts who could have done it: Lucius Malfoy and all of the Rosiers were at least two years younger so it was unlikely to be them. The most likely option was Rabastan Lestrange – he was a seventh year Slytherin with a passion for violence, and I wasn't sure I would be able to stand up to him if I confronted him.

"Reg, can you keep a secret?" I nodded. Of course I could. Hadn't I been the one not telling anybody about her relationship with Ted for years! And I was friends with a muggle born! If I hadn't been able to keep a secret I'm sure that Mother would have either disowned me or would have at least started to use the 'Cruciatus Curse' a lot more often than she did now. I shuddered to think of what my Mother's reaction would be if she found out about Steph, Ryan and the stash of muggle information books and novels under my bed. I was lucky she left Kreacher to do all of the cleaning.

"You know I can keep a secret," I said, looking at her tear-stained face. I could tell that whatever this secret was, it must have been something really bad. Something she didn't want everyone else to know. I wondered briefly if she had been threatened in the same way that Rodolphus had threatened me. Then again, Rabastan probably didn't have the brains, expertise, or bottle to kill anyone – if it was him anyway. "Do you want to go and talk about it somewhere where this lot can't overhear us?" I said, gesturing at the other Ravenclaws, who were crowded around us and looking rather worried.

"No, it's okay. They won't say anything," she assured me. I told them to back off and to leave us alone anyway.

"Do you want to tell me?" I asked. Even though the tears had stopped, she was still shaking a little. Whatever if was that was bothering her, it was something big.

"I, I think… I think I might be going to have a baby," she said. I looked at her, confused. How was having a baby a bad thing? I'd always wanted a little baby brother or sister to play with. Perhaps I would get to play with my new cousin when he or she was born. The only thing I could think of that would be bad would be that most people thought it was best to get married first. I knew that muggles thought this too because I'd once heard Ryan singing: "Teddy and Andy sitting in a tree, K.I.S.S.I.N.G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then along comes a baby in a baby carriage." I didn't think that muggles believed that babies came in carriages, but I thought the rest of it was accurate.

"Isn't having a baby supposed to be a good thing?" I asked. Andromeda just burst into tears again. I made out something like, "everyone's going to hate me," and decided to think of something comforting to say.

"I won't hate you," I said. "I'll help you through everything and then you and Ted can get a house together. It is Ted's isn't it?"

"Yeah, it's his. But Mother and Father and Cissy and Bella are all going to hate me. He's muggle born. They hate muggleborns!"

Cissy would certainly be annoyed – just like she had been when Sirius hadn't lived up to her ideals and expectations. However, she couldn't just start hating her sister just because of one incident.

"Don't be silly! Cissy will just be a bit cross for a bit and then a few weeks later she'll be fine. She's your sister and you mean the world to her. You've always been there for her way more than Bella ever has so she can't just suddenly start hating you – that would be stupid!" I told her. She seemed to believe me and perked up a little, but then she remembered the others.

"But what about Bella? She's gone all blood-purist now. Ted's just the sort of person she and the Lestranges want to eradicate." I couldn't argue with that one; over the past year or so, my oldest cousin had become increasingly interested in the dark arts, and along with that came a blossoming romance with Rodolphus and a passion for torturing muggles and muggleborns. Ted was one of the latter.

"Bella cares about you more than she does about Rodolphus and his 'Death Eater' friends. She won't kill him if you tell her not to," I told her. She didn't get any more upset so I guessed I'd said the right thing. At least I hadn't made anything worse. We sat in silence for a few minutes before I had an idea.

"You don't have to tell them, you know. When are you going to have the baby?"

"After the exams, just after we break up," she said.

"Well then. You can run away and get a house all of your own. You're of age, so you can do what you like and you can get into the family vault," I told her.

"They'll know. The family tree updates itself when a new member is born. They'll see the change and then they'll burn me off it. They'll disown me and then I won't be able to get any money at all."

"What if you took out some of the money and transferred it to Ted? Then you would be able to get at it after they disown you?" I said. It was probably the wrong thing to say. She probably wanted me to tell her that our family loved her and would never ever disown her. But we both knew that that wasn't the truth; even though Uncle Cygnus might have been proud to have 'such a clever daughter,' he wasn't the type to encompass an illegitimate half-blood into the family.

As she hugged me I realised that I was a little tearful too. I couldn't stand the idea of my family all blasting my favourite cousin off the family tree and hating her just because Ted wasn't pureblood. He couldn't help who his parents were and even if he could, they weren't bad people. I'd met them and they'd been really nice and had given me Cadbury's chocolate and some muggle sweets called marshmallows. They'd even let me play with some of Ted's old toys! Then there was the possibility that my family might forbid me from even speaking to my own cousin. I'd have to talk to her in secret like I had to when I talked to muggles!

"If you do get disowned, will you still write to me and can I come and visit you? I'll say I'm going to Becky's house or something – Mother won't question it," I whispered.

"Of course you can still see me. I'll write to you too, I promise I will."

"Really? Siri said that too, but he never wrote to me, not once in two whole years when I wrote every day," I said.

"I'm not Sirius – of course I'll write back!" she said. I felt slightly better, but I was still worried.

…..

"Reggie, I'm scared," whispered Andromeda. We were entering the library and she was gripping my hand so tightly that it hurt. I didn't mind because I knew she didn't mean to hurt me; she was just nervous.

"Look, he's over there," I said, pointing to Ted Tonks, who was sat talking to a group of seventh year Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors. "Do you want me to come with you?" I asked. She nodded.

"Ted, can I have a word, in private?" she asked when we walked up to the table. He looked at her red eyes and wet cheeks and stood up. The three of us walked through the aisles of books until we were out of earshot of the others.

"What's up, Andy?" he asked.

"I think I'm pregnant," she whispered. Ted took her into his arms and comforted her. After a while, I saw that they were about to start kissing – muggle washing machine style kissing – so I quickly disappeared off to look for someone my age to talk to.

…..

_AN: Thanks for reading. Nymphadora Tonks is about seven years or so older than Harry and it says on Wiki that she was born in 1973. Therefore, because I made Andromeda a few years younger than her cannon age to put her and Regulus at Hogwarts together, Tonks had to be born when Andromeda was at a slightly younger age. I messed up the dates a little by accident, so this is about November 1972. In cannon it should be 1973, but because I thought Sirius was born in 1959, I added eleven onto his age and ended up with him starting Hogwarts in 1970, so this is now 1972. The reason for the miscalculation is that James Potter was born in 1960, in a different year to Sirius. Please don't flame me for this. _

_On another note, Polyjuice potion takes quite a long time to brew. The effects of the potion will be seen in the next chapter, but first, here's a little extra something._

…..

**Extra Scene**

"Are you completely sure this is a good idea?" I asked Marcus.

"I'm pretty sure it is. You want to spend time with your brother don't you?" I wanted to agree but maybe trickery wasn't the best way to get Sirius to talk to me. Still, I hadn't managed to hold a decent conversation with him for over two years now, so the potion couldn't hurt, could it?

I followed the two second years into the classroom.

"Hello Professor," said Marcus, giving Slughorn one of the cheesiest looking grins I had ever seen. "I was wondering if it would be possible for my friends and I to do a project for extra credit, like Sandy and I did last year.

"Why, of course you can. I see you've brought young Regulus along too. May I say your performance in class was excellent – you didn't even look at the textbook to see what you needed to add to counteract your those accidents your friend made. May I inquire as to what sort of potions you want to brew?"

"Well, we found this book in the library with a lot of really interesting potions in it," said Sandy, handing the potions master the book with the instructions for polyjuice potion in it.

"Hmm, some of these look quite difficult, though after last year, I don't suppose they will be too much of a problem for you. I'll be in my office if you need any help. Help yourself to the ingredients – you know where they are." With that, Professor Slughorn disappeared into his office.

"Wow, I didn't expect it to be that easy to convince him," I said.

"He helped us last year with some OWL potions. We didn't use any of them, apart from the hair colour change potion, but then that one was just asking to be used," said Sandy

"The look on Lily Evan's face when her hair turned blue! She still thinks it was Potter!"

…..

_I know from the sixth book that Slughorn isn't exactly gullible, but that he doesn't question his students intentions. This is why he tells the young Voldemort about the horcruxes._

_Please review._


	28. Chapter 28: Perfect Day

_Disclaimer: I do not own 'Harry Potter'_

_AN: Okay so here is the polyjuice potion chapter._

**Chapter Twenty-Eight: Perfect Day**

Marcus, Becky and I were standing in a disused classroom, near the entrance to the Great Hall. Marcus was there because he had the potion and also happened to be an expert at transfiguration, which we would need for our clothes.

"Are you ready?" I asked Becky.

"Ready as I'll ever be," she said. She was already wearing clothes exactly the same as those we had seen on Lily earlier. We'd completed the potion a few days ago, and Steph had manages to get the hairs from James Potter and Lily Evans yesterday. We'd decided to drink it today, though, because today was a Saturday and there were no lessons. I didn't fancy making a fool of myself in third year Herbology and the teachers were more likely to notice if

we tried anything on a week day.

I watched Becky's face as she drank the red coloured potion – it said in the book that the colour of the potion reflects your personality. James' and Lily's potions were both red with gold bits mixed in to match their Gryffindor quidditch scarves. From Becky's expression, however, it wasn't very nice to drink

I watched as her hair grew longer and wavier and changed to a deep red. Her eyes changed to a beautiful green colour as she grew about four inches taller. She looked exactly like Lily except her smile was all wrong.

"You need to work on your expression. You look drippier than your sister right now," I told her. She corrected herself and began to look more convincing. She walked into the Great Hall and straight up to James. I don't know what she said to him, but he followed her out and up the grand staircase. I quickly drank my potion and Marcus changed my clothes to look like James's. He also gave me a pair of glasses just like James's.

I waited a few minutes before walking into the Great Hall to sit by Sirius and his other friends. A pretty girl waved at me and I felt embarrassed because I had completely forgotten to find out beforehand what everyone's names were.

"What did Lily want?" asked Sirius.

"Oh, just to tell me that if I ever asked her out to Hogsmeade again, she would hex me into the next decade," I lied.

""Sounds like Lily," said Sirius. I sat down between James and Remus and began to eat lunch.

The conversation turned to Boggarts, which the third years would all be studying in 'Defence Against The Dark Arts' class next week. I knew all about Boggarts because Uncle Cygnus had told me, but I didn't know what James would know about them. He was pureblood, so maybe his parents had told him all about them beforehand. Then again, he was a prankster like Sirius so perhaps he didn't have the same thirst for knowledge that I had.

"I think my worst fear would be a dementor," Sirius said.

"That shows that what you fear the most is fear itself," I said. "A dementor is one of the foulest things that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest of places, they glory in decay and despair, and they drain peace, hope and happiness out of the air around them. They suck all of the happy memories out of you."

"When did you get so clever, James? You stole the words right out of my mouth," said Remus. Oops.

"My parents told me about them," I said. Another lie – it had actually been Bellatrix that told me, and then I had looked it up to see if she had been telling the truth, or just trying to scare me. She'd been telling the truth.

"Oh, I wish my parents told me stuff," said Sirius. "All my Mother ever does is shout at me."

"What's your greatest fear then?" Sirius asked. Remus said that his was a full moon. I didn't really understand that one but maybe Remus had told them something about himself beforehand so that it made sense. I didn't say anything in case it blew my cover. Peter was afraid of his friends rejecting him.

I didn't know what to say for mine. I was glad I had chosen to do this on a weekend – I'd hate to think what they'd think of me if they say the tortured Sirius or the evil Bella. It was enough to give me nightmares, but I'm sure it would have been a lot worse for Sirius to see himself in such a vulnerable state – especially in front of the whole class.

"Um, losing the quidditch match to Slytherin? I don't really know," I said.

"Is Quidditch all you ever think about?" asked Sirius. I guessed that was one of those rhetorical questions; the kind you're not supposed to answer.

"No sometimes he thinks about Evans," said Remus. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Do you two want to play Quidditch then?" I asked. Sirius nodded enthusiastically, the way he never did when I asked him to play with me. The other two didn't want to and headed off the library to catch up on homework. I followed Sirius to the Quidditch pitch and waited while he got the brooms out.

I quickly examined James's broom. It was a new one and was the exact same model as the one Macmillan had been showing off on last time he came to my house. Sirius was also carrying a quaffle, and he and I took off from the ground. We passed the quaffle to one another and then Sirius went as keeper and me as a chaser. I was quite good at being a chaser. Then we swapped around and I played keeper. I was rubbish at being a keeper and Sirius said so.

Overall, in was the best fun I'd had with my brother since we'd caught starfish together (and even that occasion had ended in disaster). I don't know how long we played for, but by the time we had finished, the sun had started to go down. Then again, it was late November and the sun goes down at five at that time of year.

I put the brooms back and then followed Sirius back to the Gryffindor common room. If I had been any other Slytherin, I would have taken in the password and used the information to my advantage. As it was, I was too happy from playing Quidditch to do so. The Gryffindor common room was like the Ravenclaw one, but redder, and without the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw. It had a cosy fire at one end of the room, and lots of comfortable arm chairs. Two sixth years or seventh years were sat in a corner playing chess.

I flopped myself down next to Remus and Peter in what I thought was James-like manner, while Sirius went upstairs for a shower before dinner. Remus, who I knew to be more perceptive than his other friends, didn't notice any change in my behaviour, or that I wasn't James. Remus started talking about charms - they were learning how to squirt water out of their wands, which I found highly amusing.

"James, why has your hair gone flat?" asked Remus.

"What?" I felt the back of my head. My hair was changing into its natural state. I was glad I'd chosen to be James and not Remus because Remus's hair was a lot more different to my natural hair. "Um, I've got to go," I told Sirius's friends. "Don't tell Sirius!"

"Don't tell Sirius what?" asked Peter.

"That my hair's gone funny," I told them as I ran out of the portrait. "He'll tease me forever!"

I ran out leaving a very miffed Peter and a confused looking Remus behind. I wondered how long it would take them to realise what had just happened.

…_.._

_AN: Thanks for reading. I'm writing this on my new laptop. Hope you liked it - the story I mean, not the laptop._

_Does anyone have any preferences to when I put everyone's birthdays? I have to put Regulus's somewhere between Christmas and Easter because he was nine at Easter and hadn't had a birthday before Christmas. _

_Please review. I only got one for my last chapter._

_:)_


	29. Chapter 29: Not Lily?

_Disclaimer: I do not own the 'Harry Potter' books._

_AN: This chapter is what happened with James and Becky while the events in the previous chapter took place. _

**Chapter Twenty Nine: Not Lily?**

I don't really know why Regulus chose me to this. The second years would probably have been much better at it and Steph is in Gryffindor so she probably knew more about James and Lily than I did. Then again the Gryffindors might have noticed if Steph was missing, and Regulus trusted me a lot more than he did his other friends.

The potion looked pretty but tasted vile. When I had finished transforming, I looked down at my best friend. I was now three whole inches taller than him. He gave me a weird look as if to say 'stop daydreaming', so I did, and tried to do my best impression of Lily. Regulus said it was a good one and let me go.

It didn't take long to find James and his friends; they were sitting at Gryffindor table in exactly the same places that they always sat in. I walked up to James Potter and tapped him on the shoulder.

"James, can I have a word?" I asked. He nodded and followed me out of the Great Hall and up the staircase.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"I don't know. Somewhere private?"

"Oh, I know somewhere we could go," said James. "Follow me." I followed him all the way to the seventh floor to a corridor where there was a tapestry hanging. I watched as James walked up and down three times and a door appeared. I followed him through and saw a cosy looking room with a fireplace, two red chairs and a red sofa. I imagined it was a smaller version of Gryffindor common room.

"So, would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me, Lily?" James asked.

"Maybe," I said. I knew James had been asking Lily out since the start of the year and she'd been saying no. I didn't want to say yes because then James would run around the school screaming and looking for his friends. However, I also didn't want him getting all upset and mopey like last time Lily had said no.

"That's a start," said James. "My divination Professor says that you're going to marry me and we're going to have a kid together." Great, so James was going to be pestering Lily for the rest of his Hogwarts years until she finally gave in. At least I hoped he meant Lily and not me. I wouldn't marry James if he was the last person on earth. James stared dreamily at what he thought was Lily. I guessed Lily didn't do divination.

"So you believe that then? James, I wouldn't marry you if you were the last guy left on earth."

"But I'm not the last guy on earth am I? Besides, everyone knows that everything the Professor predicts comes true. Last year she predicted that our 'Defence Against The Dark Arts' teacher would die a painful death on a particular date, and he got attacked by acromantula exactly when she said."

I sincerely hoped they didn't all come true. Regulus had told me he'd overheard James and Sirius talking about some rather nasty predictions - something about someone dying in 1979 and 1981, which wasn't that far off.

"She also says I'm going to be an Auror and Quidditch captain on day," said James.

"Are there any predictions about me?"

"No, except that you will marry me. Sirius keeps getting loads of horrible predictions though. Last lesson, the Professor looked right at him and started chanting something."

"What happened?" I asked. James put on a very distant expression and started to mimic the teacher's voice:

_He will die alone to bring down the only man he could ever hate,_

_The man he believed to have made everything go bad,_

_The truth not to be discovered until it is too late,_

_After the death of the greatest wizard Hogwarts has ever had." _

"And what did Sirius say to that?" I asked.

"That he hated more than one person so it obviously didn't mean him," said James.

"I think the last line means Dumbledore?"

"That's what Sirius thought. That means it won't happen for ages because Dumbledore isn't going to just drop down dead, and no one's going to be killing him any time soon. Anyway, I don't want to talk about that. How are you finding Ancient Runes?"

Oh great. He had to pick a subject I'd never done in my life didn't he?

"Um, it's Okay. It's quite difficult what we're doing at the moment but I did some extra reading and now it all makes sense," I said. James seemed satisfied with my answer.

We talked about trivial things like lessons and the upcoming Hogsmeade weekend. James said that Sirius was taking Mary MacDonald on a date, and wondered if I would like to come with them and make it a double date. I said no, because I believed that's what the real Lily would have wanted me to say. Then somehow we managed to get onto the subject of Quidditch and James talked for hour on his quidditch skills. I would have done the same but I didn't know if Lily could even ride on a broomstick. I hoped James wasn't like that all the time; otherwise it would be very difficult for him to get the real Lily to actually like him.

I noticed it was almost time for dinner and suddenly realised that I had no idea how long the potion lasted for. Stupid friends for not telling me – or maybe they didn't know either.

"Your eyes!" said James, pointing. I looked at my reflection in one of the portraits and noticed my face was changing to its natural state. My hair was changing colour too.

"Lily?"

"I'm not Lily. I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen, but I'm really not Lily. Please don't tell anyone – especially not Sirius."

"I won't. Can I tell Remus?"

"If you want, but keep it a secret between the two of you please."

"Ok," said James. I ran out of the room as fast as my legs could carry me.

…..

_AN: I hope you like this. Thanks for reading. Can any one suggest some names for the death eater characters. I've written the next three and a half chapters and noticed it gets a bit confusing with loads of people with the same name. I've got two unnamed older Rosier brothers (Regulus doesn't know which is which) and two characters called Mulciber so it could be a bit confusing in the future._

_Please review._


	30. Chapter 30: Curses

_Disclaimer: I am not J. and I do not own the 'Harry Potter' series. I do own Emily though, but she's not a main character._

_AN: This takes place the weekend after the polyjuice potion incident. It may not seem very important now, but it will be later in the story. I hope this doesn't cause any major problems, but I have changed the circumstances of one of the minor character's deaths (Not Regulus's though - he still dies in the cave)._

**Chapter Thirty: Curses**

"Shut up you filthy little mudblood!"

I had been on the way to the library when I'd heard it. I turned the corner to see Evan Rosier and one of his brothers with their wands pointed at a small, skinny Hufflepuff girl in my year called Emily. I didn't like the term 'mudblood', but it was even worse than usual because I knew for a fact that both of Emily's parents were wizards.

I thought it was the third-year brother but I wasn't sure – they both looked the same and were both at least a foot taller than me. He cast a nasty hex at Emily which made a gash appear on her face and caused blood to come out. It wasn't anything worth a trip to the hospital wing but it probably hurt her quite a lot because she looked as if she was fighting back tears. It was a horrible thing to do and I wanted to do something about it. I would have to pay for the consequences later but I didn't care.

"Aquamenti," I whispered, remembering the spell that Remus had been talking about. It wasn't exactly a curse and it wasn't going to cause anyone any harm, but I didn't know much else that was remotely unpleasant (Wingardium Leviosa or the tickling charm wouldn't do any good at all). A stream of cold water came out of the end of my wand and soaked both of the Rosiers. It annoyed them, and seeing the looks on their faces cheered Emily up considerably.

I hadn't expected it to work first time but it did. Both boys turned around to face me. I gestured for Emily to run and she scarpered off into the library. Evan shot a red curse at me, which I easily dodged, and his brother shot a purple one that missed me. I recognised the red one as a stunning spell. I'd read about them but I hadn't remembered the incantation – I guessed Evan had learnt it at home. I had absolutely no idea what the purple curse was.

"What do you think you're doing sticking up for mudbloods, Black? You're just like that blood traitor brother of yours!" asked Evan.

"She's not a mudblood. Both of her parents are magical," I said.

"So? Her Mother's a mudblood, therefore she's got dirty blood too!" argued his brother. I guess that if you took the meaning of the word 'mudblood' to mean 'someone who has had their blood tainted with blood from a muggle' then Emily probably was one. However, it was still a horrible thing to say to someone and having muggle grandparents didn't mean she was any less entitled to learn magic than I was. There was no reason to hurt her!

"Black, you'll get nowhere if you defend Hufflepuff scum like that!" added Evan. Not necessarily, though I'd probably end up with most of my house hating me. I was much less likely to end up in Azkaban though, which was where Evan and his brothers would most likely end up.

"At least I don't go around hexing people that are younger than me! She's a half-blood anyway. There are loads of those in third year that are the same age as you. Why don't you pick on them instead?"

"Why would I want to pick a fight with someone who can hex me back? Do I look like I want to be sent to the hospital wing?" said the older brother. I thought about saying yes, but I didn't.

"Isn't that a bit cowardly? Wouldn't it be better to win a fight against a third year than to terrorise Hufflepuffs for fun? Or don't you know enough curses?" I asked. I knew I was provoking him but I was angry, and I was going to let him know it. I wasn't just going to stand by and watch them hurt someone who hadn't done anything wrong.

"Of course I do. I'll show you," he said. He said a spell I had never heard of before and I heard a loud crack as it hit me. I screamed as it felt like someone had stabbed a knife through me arm, but when I looked down I saw that there was no blood anywhere.

"That's a bone breaker curse," said Evan's older brother. "My other brother taught me that. He learnt it off Lucius Malfoy who learnt it from his father." I didn't care; I just wanted the pain to stop. I clutched the part that hurt as if by holding it, it would make the pain go away and prevent it from falling off. My arm didn't fall off but it felt like it had. Evan was giggling hysterically and his brother was trying to get him to calm down.

"What in Merlin's name is going on here?" asked Professor Flitwick. The tiny man was obviously taking a delivery of books to the library as he was carrying a stack of books taller than himself.

"Oh, little Regulus here just tripped over and fell really awkwardly. Would you like me to take him to the hospital wing?" said Rosier, almost sweetly. Evan was still trying and failing to conceal his fits of laughter and I was trying my hardest not to cry. However, the Professor didn't notice because he couldn't see much over the humongous pile of textbooks.

"Yes, that's a good idea Mr Rosier. Go ahead and make sure he's alright," said the Professor. I almost screamed again as Evan deliberately grabbed hold of the part of me that hurt and began to pull me in the direction of the hospital wing. His brother held onto my other side and pretended to support me.

"I won't tell if you don't tell," Evan said.

"Tell what?" I gasped.

"I won't tell your Mother you're sticking up for mudbloods and Hufflepuffs, if you don't tell Madam Pomfrey what my brother really did to you."

"Ok," I sighed.

When we arrived at the hospital wing, Evan told Madam Pomfrey the same story his brother hand told Flitwick. At first she didn't believe him, but after about five different demonstrations of how you can trip over and fall awkwardly, she stopped asking questions and believed him. The older Rosier scarpered off but Evan stayed with me and looked genuinely concerned for my wellbeing. I was pretty sure it was all fake concern though, seeing as he had been giggling uncontrollably not five minutes ago.

Madam Pomfrey bandaged me up, gave me a pain potion and made me sit in a bed for ages. Evan Rosier got bored after five minutes so went off to terrorise some more muggleborns with his brothers. I got bored too and so used a summoning charm I'd read about called "accio" to summon the book on curses and counter-curses that Bella had given me. Hopefully I'd find something in there to defend myself with next time.

…..

_AN: Oops, that was supposed to be a 'Regulus goes to the library chapter. I was planning on him following Emily into the library but I got a little bit side tracked. Next chapter, Regulus will go into the library to look for a spell to help his cousin, and after that, someone else carries out a little prank of their own. Any guesses as to who this person might be? It isn't anyone you'd expect._

_Please review._


	31. Chapter 31: Library

_Disclaimer: I'm not the official author of the 'Harry Potter' series._

_AN: Thank you to everyone who reviewed. My aim is to get about five per chapter – the most I ever seem to get for this story is four. Why are you fanfictioners all so interested in the Nico story, which is completely stupid?_

**Chapter Thirty One: Library**

It was Sunday morning. I was still in the Hospital wing because Madame Pomfrey had insisted that I stayed there for the whole night. I didn't know why – I had broken my arm before and not had to stay in hospital all night, although I was glad that I had to. I couldn't bare the idea of having to have dinner and sleep in a dormitory with Evan after what had happened. It wasn't so much what his brother had done, but both of their reactions; gleeful laughter and fake kindness.

All the same, I was glad when Madam Pomfrey finally released me as I didn't like being stuck in a bed with one book of curses under the pillow and no Sirius II. (I still slept with it most nights even though I was nearly twelve.) She had bandaged my right arm and put it in a sling. It still hurt a lot and it was going to be very difficult to write anything down.

I headed to the library to do what I had planned to do yesterday. I wanted to find a spell that could help Andromeda keep her baby a secret. I knew from when Mrs Parkinson, who was a friend of my Mothers, had her third and fourth child, that just before someone had a baby, they got pregnant and their tummy swelled up. I knew that at Hogwarts it would be very hard for someone not to notice that that had happened, so I needed to find something to help before it did.

Most people were either outside or at Hogsmeade, so I sat down at a round table in the library between Robert and Macmillan and opposite Emily, who was probably in here to hide from the other Slytherins. I smiled at Robert, who, although he was terrible at potions, was good at most other things and had become a very good friend. Macmillan also, had toned down on the bragging as he had realised no one wanted to hear it, and had become a fairly decent acquaintance. I didn't know Emily very well but she didn't look as if she was about to curse me so I supposed she was alright.

"What happened to you?" asked Macmillan, glancing at my arm.

"Evan Rosier and his older brother happened," I said. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Is that because of me? I'm so sorry!" said Emily.

"Don't worry. It's not your fault. If it hadn't been you it would have been someone else. I just hate the way they treat people," I told her. "I'm just going to get a book, save my place," I said, even though there was no one in the library to steal it.

I went off to look for a book. I spotted one on concealing charms and brought it back to the table.

"What do you want to read that for?" asked Robert.

"Well if I told you, what would be the point in concealing it?" I said.

"Fair point, but can't you help me with my potions essay?"

"Have a go first, and then I'll go through it with you after. If you just ask me to tell you, you won't learn it properly," I said.

I began flicking through the charms book. There were lots of interesting charms in it: one made you camouflaged against whatever you were standing next to, one made you invisible and one made you only noticeable in someone's peripheral vision. There were charms for objects, animals, plants and people, and even for enormous things like castles and houses. I noticed one particularly powerful one called the 'Fidelius Charm', which allowed you to hide your house and family, and wrote it down in the back of my charms notebook. If things became as bad as Andromeda thought that they might, she might need to use it!

I finally found a charm that wouldn't affect the growth of the baby and wouldn't make my cousin completely invisible. It was called the 'notice me not' charm, and made it so that people would either not notice a person or not detect a change in that person. It was recommended for using on bruising, but it said you could use it on pregnant people too, or fat or disfigured people, or if you wanted to hide your true identity. I quickly scribbled it down in the back of my charms book underneath the 'Fidelius Charm'. I wrote with my left hand, which made my hand writing look really messy.

I turned my attention back to the others, who were discussing Quidditch and explaining the rules to another girl, who had sat down next to Emily.

"So quidditch is a bit like netball only on broomsticks?" she asked.

"What's netball?" asked Macmillan. Robert looked confused.

"It's a seven player game, where you have to pass the ball to each other and then throw it into a hoop," I explained.

Robert looked at me gobsmacked. "How did you know that? I've never heard of such a game!"

"It's a muggle game," I said. "Steph played it on a team for her primary school. She played a position called 'goal attack', where you get to shoot the ball through the hoop, or 'wing attack', where you have to run around and try and catch the ball." I'd thought it very odd at first that all seven players got to play with the same ball. It had been even odder, however, to discover that although her position was called 'wing attack,' there was no flying involved whatsoever.

"Do they get to fly?" asked Robert.

"No," said the girl I didn't know. "They run around on the ground because muggles don't have brooms."

"What's the point of a game with only one ball and no broomsticks?" Macmillan said. "It can't be very exciting."

"It is, because muggles don't know any different. It's much more interesting than some other muggle games like golf or cricket," said the girl. She then went on to explain the rules of both games, and the way she told it made them seem really dull. On the other hand, if someone who actually liked those games had explained them to us, they might have sounded more fun.

Half an hour later, Robert handed me his essay. It wasn't too bad compared to some of his previous essays, but there were a few fundamental errors. I explained what he had done wrong and he seemed happy that I was helping him. When he had finished, we both started on our essay on Hinkypunks. I hoped that our 'Defence against the Dark Arts' Professor wouldn't mind how messy my handwriting was. It took about twice as long to write and looked like my handwriting used to when I was about seven years old.

"Come on, let's go and get lunch," said Robert. I thought that was an excellent idea and followed my friends to the Great Hall. They all sat together on Hufflepuff table and I went and sat by Cissy. I couldn't find Marcus anywhere, and Barty and Evan were both scowling at me for talking to the Hufflepuffs. I didn't see their problem – Mother was perfectly happy with me talking to Macmillan, and Robert was pureblood too.

"What happened to you?" asked Cissy. I told her the same story that Rosier had told all the teachers because I didn't want it to get back to them that I'd told anyone what had really happened.

…..

_AN: Thanks for reading. I hope you are enjoying the story. Sorry if you don't like Barty Crouch or Evan Rosier. I know they are both absolutely horrible. Cissy here actually knows more about what happened to Regulus than she is currently letting on. You'll see what I mean in the next chapter. Oh and if any of you don't know how to play netball (I didn't know until year seven when I started high school), WA and GA positions are the ones I thought were most similar to playing chaser – GA especially. I gave the example of netball rather than basketball, like Harry, because I thought Stephannie was more likely to have been on the school netball team as more primary schools have them than basketball teams. Also, Wing Attack with no flying is quite funny._

_If anyone has any requests for scenes, please let me know. I can easily write a little scene on request for the end of a chapter, such as James and Remus discussing the polyjuice incident, or how Sirius feels about his brother. _

_Please review._


	32. Chapter 32: Cissy's Revenge

_Disclaimer: I do not own 'Harry Potter' or any of the associated characters._

_AN: I've hardly been getting any reviews recently. Please review, even if it is a construcive comment. Thanks to those who are reviewing - I love hearing from you. Please read the Authors note at the end. It is much more interesting than this one._

**Chapter Thirty Two: Cissy's Revenge**

It was a few days later, and Avery and I were sat together having breakfast a little apart from the other people in our dormitory. Avery had said that it was okay for me to talk to Hufflepuffs and half-bloods as long as I didn't talk to mudbloods. Barty and Evan were now refusing to talk to either of us, and Mulciber was too cowardly to do any different when they were around. After only five minutes of being sat with him, I could already tell that Avery wasn't much of a talker.

I watched as Marcus and Cissy walked into the Great Hall, laughing about some private joke. I saw Marcus tip a bottle of clear liquid into Evan Rosier's pumpkin juice while the first year wasn't looking. Cissy was giggling uncontrollably, as she and Marcus sat down opposite Avery and me. I guessed that whatever was in that bottle was what Marcus had been doing on Saturday, whilst I was in the hospital wing, and on Sunday, whilst I was in the Library.

Rosier stood up and started singing loudly. I didn't know the tune, but it sounded like it was from a French musical or something. It certainly wasn't English. He then began skipping around the Great Hall with an enormous smile on his face that looked more out-of-this-world that the one that Becky's sister usually wore. Then he sat down at Gryffindor table between Lily Evans and Dorcas Meadowes, both of whom I knew to be muggleborns.

"What did you just give him?" I asked Marcus.

"A mixture of love potion, babbling potion, hyperactivity potion, pepper-up potion and firewhisky," he said. Wow, that was quite a lot of different things.

"I thought you weren't supposed to mix potions together because you don't know what effects they might have," I said.

"Well none of them are bad things, so I didn't think anything could go wrong," said Marcus. "Besides, it was Cissy's idea to mix them. I was just going to go with the love potion."

I looked at my cousin. I was a bit confused because Cissy was usually the good girl, and poisoning first years was a very unlike her. It was like the sort of thing Evan were doing. Cissy and he were cousins, but they were nothing like each other most of the time. "What would you want to do that for, Cissy?" I asked her.

"I should have thought that was obvious," she said. I looked at her blankly and she continued. "Reggie, I'm not nearly as stupid as you seem to think I am. I know you and Rosier hate each other, and then you get left alone with him and his brother and end up in the hospital wing. It's obvious that he or his brother hurt you and your covering up for them because they black-mailed you. I wanted to teach him a lesson."

I stared at her, astounded. Was it really that obvious what was going on?

"It doesn't really help that you and Evan keep giving each other death stares, and we were in the library when you screamed, just after Emily told everyone you'd squirted water at both of them," said Marcus. "How do you do that by the way?"

"Aquamenti," I said. Marcus tried it and a jet of water hit Nicola from Ravenclaw table on the back of the head. She turned around and gave us a half-hearted glare, then smiled at us. Her friend cast a drying spell on her wet hair.

"Anyway, Emily comes into the library and starts telling everyone who'll listen to her that Evan Rosier called her a mudblood even though she isn't one and that you saved her by squirting water all over both of them," said Cissy. "Then a few minutes later, we all hear a scream and then the next thing we know you're in the hospital wing."

"So she put two and two together and came to the conclusion that one of the Rosiers hurt you and wanted to get her own back. And it looks like it's working; he's never gonna live this down."

I glanced towards Gryffindor table where Evan was now trying to kiss Dorcas. Dorcas was not looking very happy about it and Sirius and James had gone over to investigate.

"What on earth do you think you're doing?" shouted Sirius. I thought it was quite obvious what he was doing but I didn't think Sirius meant it literally. He probably meant something along the lines of "Get off her now!"

James didn't bother with the shouting part. He drew his wand and pointed at Evan Rosier. "Stop it, or else," he said. Evan didn't stop, so James cast "Impedimenta!" The Slytherin first year was thrown across the floor and landed in a heap in front of the teachers' table.

I watched as he got up off the floor. Neither Professor Dumbledore, nor Professor McGonagall, or any of the other Professors found it very amusing, but Cissy was laughing hysterically.

"I didn't expect that to happen," whispered Marcus. Throughout the whole thing, Avery had been watching and trying not to laugh. I myself laughed as Professor McGonagall gave both Evan Rosier and James Potter detention – detention in the same room as one another. If that wasn't punishment for him, then I didn't know what was.

"Apart from squirting water, what exactly did you do, Reg?" asked Avery. I was surprised because he hadn't spoken at all to me for ages.

"I told him that Emily wasn't a mudblood and that he shouldn't be calling her one. Then I told his brother not to be mean to people that were younger than him," I said.

"Evan's from one of those really pureblood families that think you are a mudblood if one of your great grandparents was one," said Avery. "I wouldn't listen to him if I were you."

"It was a bit stupid of you to pick a fight with someone older than you," said Cissy. She was right; it was absolutely reckless and stupid. But I couldn't stand by and watch them hurt someone could I? I was surprised that she didn't comment on my stupidity of talking to a half blood Hufflepuff, but nowadays I could never really predict what Cissy would come out with.

"Yeah, well, sometimes you have to do stupid things," I said.

"Don't you have any self-preservation instincts at all?" Cissy asked. "You're in Slytherin so it's supposed to be something you're good at." By self-preservation, Cissy meant follow the crowd and torture muggleborns like everyone else so that they didn't pick on you. If that's what it meant to be in Slytherin, then I didn't want to be part of it anymore.

"Well I don't like seeing other people getting hurt," I argued. "Rosier hit her with a cutting curse! And then he hit me with a bone-breaking curse."

"You're such an idiot, Reggie. You really should have been in Hufflepuff!" said Cissy. I wasn't sure how being an idiot made my eligible for Hufflepuff, but I decided not to argue. "If he bothers you again, just ask me and I'll get Lucius to deal with him. He's been being really nice to me recently."

…..

_AN: Thanks to everyone who has been reading this story. I love writing it, so you can look forward to many updates in the future. As I have said before, I have the main story events planned out until Regulus's fifth year. The small details can change though as I think of more things and I get feedback from reviewers. For example, when I thought of the polyjuice potion prank, I changed Marcus's house. I had originally planned to put him in Ravenclaw. If you have any ideas for little scenes and pranks, you can put them in a review._

_I also wanted to create an OC for Sirius's girlfriend in his sixth year. She's a year below Sirius and on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, but that's all I've got so far. Until then, Sirius will be dating random Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs or Ravenclaws when a date is mentioned. There was one in a previous chapter if you spotted them. However, if you have any suggestions for a name it would be helpful. I also had plans for a Sandy/Remus pairing in the same year – this won't interfere with Tonks, who will only be about three years old at the time._

_Also, do you think I should continue referring to characters Regulus doesn't like or isn't best friends with by their surnames? It could get potentially confusing having two older boys both called Rosier. There are also two Mulcibers. The Rosiers are cousins of Cissy because her Mother used to be called Druella Rosier and their father is Cissy's mother's brother._

_NEXT CHAPTER IS JAMES POTTER'S POINT OF VIEW!_

_Please leave all comments in a review, or a PM, but I prefer a review._

_PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!_


	33. Chapter 33: Animagi

_Disclaimer: I do not own the 'Harry Potter' books of the films. Emily is mine. Charity, Dorcas and Evan are not. Other than that, it should be ovbvious who are my own characters and who aren't. _

**Chapter Thirty Three: Animagi**

Detention with one of the Rosier brothers was not something I ever wanted to do again. As if his brother wasn't bad enough, this little squirt kept going on and on about my choice of friends and how superior his family was. You'd have thought after he was the one under the love potion, trying to kiss a muggleborn that he'd have some self-reservation, but no, he kept going on about how amazing his brother was.

It was disgusting really. Apparently a boy my age had used a fifth year level curse on a first year and Evan had thought it was funny. He told me, in fits of giggles, about how the kid had screamed and then how they'd lied to Professor Flitwick after. Whatever idiotic concoction the boy had been given must have really messed with his brain because I don't know how anyone could have laughed at it in the first place, and then freely told someone they classed as a 'blood traitor' about it afterwards. The kid was clearly mad.

When he started going on about how much he hated muggleborns, still in a 'sing-song', happy voice, I rammed the feather duster that I was supposed to be cleaning the trophy room with, in his mouth. It shut him up and he was too stupid to even realise that I had done it.

As soon as I was dismissed, I ran up to Gryffindor common room where Remus and Sirius would be waiting for me. On the way I spotted Regulus Black, who was Sirius's little brother, talking to Emily Cooper and Charity Burbage, who were both first years like he was. He had his right arm in a sling and I'd heard a rumour that he'd managed to trip over and break his arm outside the library. How he'd managed to injure himself that badly from doing that I didn't know, but Sirius had told me his brother was very clumsy so it was probably something to do with that.

Regulus smiled and waved at me before continuing his conversation about a weird invention called a 'felly-tone'. According to Regulus and his friends it was a muggle invention that allowed a person to talk to another person that was a long way away. It sounded quite useful, but I had no idea why Sirius's little brother would be talking about muggle things. From what Sirius had said, Regulus shared the same blood-purist views as his parents did.

When I arrived at Gryffindor commonroom, I sat down on one of the chairs next to Remus. Sirius had disappeared off upstairs to get something and Peter was asleep. It was the perfect opportunity to ask Remus what had happened when I was with the girl that wasn't Lily.

"Um, Remus, you know the weekend before we went to Hogsmeade… Did you notice anything weird happen?" I asked.

"Yeah, your hair changed and then you ran off telling me not to tell anyone. Then you walked back in as if nothing had happened," said Remus. Great, someone had turned into me too. I don't know how they had done it but it was an excellent piece of magic and an interesting prank.

"Well that's weird because I spent the whole day with a girl who I thought was Lily Evans," I said.

"Lily was in the library with me and Peter," said Remus. "We were catching up on homework."

"I know. She told me a few days ago. I was talking to this girl that I thought was Lily, but then her eyes changed and then her hair, and then she shrank by about four inches," I told him. "One minute there was a green eyes, redhead in front of me and the next, there was a blue eyed, blonde girl that looked like a first year."

"She must have been under a spell or a potion."

"I know, but she looked like a first year. I've never heard of a potion that could do that, so how could she have done it?" I asked. However, just as Remus was about to tell me that the reason I'd never heard of it was because I never read anything, Sirius appeared with a book under his arm, dragging a very sleepy looking Peter behind him.

"James, I need to talk to you in private," he said, dragging Peter and I towards the portrait of the 'Fat Lady'. I wondered what on earth it was that he wanted to tell us, that he couldn't say in front of Remus. Sirius dragged us all the way to the room of requirement, where we all sat on a sofa with Sirius in the middle

"I have an idea of how we can help Remus but I don't want to tell him in case he gets his hopes up and we can't do it," he said. He got out the book he'd been carrying. I noticed it was the book his family had given him for Christmas in his first year – the one about how to turn into an animagus.

"I hope you're not thinking what I think you're thinking," I said. "It's illegal!"

"Yes but poor Remus has to spend all those nights on his own. It says in here that he can't hurt us if we're in animal form, so I say we do it for him," Sirius said.

When he put it like that, it was quite a good idea. "Ok let's try it, but I think we should do more research. You said yourself that this book is a bit dodgy!"

"Alright, but we'll start with this one," said Sirius. He began flipping through the pages. There was a lot of detailed information about a person's animagus form, but none so far about actually becoming one.

Sirius stopped when he came to a picture of a black shaggy dog. "Wow, this looks almost exactly like Sirius II!"

"Who is Sirius two?" asked Peter.

"Oh, it's a little toy dog I got for my baby brother when I was about four. He still sleeps with it – I checked last summer - baby," said Sirius. "I chose it because it was a dog and Sirius is the Dog Star. So you think my animagus form will be a dog?"

"Probably," I said. "It'll probably be black because you're a Black!" I said. For once, Sirius didn't make a sarcastic comment about his family, or tell me he wished he wasn't a 'Black'. Instead, he said that being a dog would be cool, and flipped to the page where it said what each animal meant.

"Being a dog animagus means that you are brave, loyal to the end, and an excellent friend," I read. Yeah, that sounds exactly like you, Sirius."

…..

_AN: In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban it said that they took the best part of three years to do it, and that they managed it in their fifth year. It you take that to mean the end of fifth year, they would have started sometime in the first term of their third year. James has no idea that the person who turned into him is Regulus. The only evidence they have is that he is friends with a blonde first year and has flatter hair than James. _

_And I decided not to name all the Death Eaters because Regulus doesn't like them anyway so doesn't call them by there first names. Please read Finding Family - I've put a new chapter up!_

_Please review._


	34. Chapter 34: Slughorn's Party

_Disclaimer: I do not own the 'Harry Potter' books. In this chapter, I own Marcus and Stephannie. I sort of own Andrew Corner too, but he is neither significant nor entirely my own character. _

_AN: Just a quick note. Barty Crouch Junior's father sends his own son to Azkaban at about the same time Sirius is captured. Barty is described as being in his late teens, which could be taken to mean that he is about Regulus's age. I can't believe that the relationship with his father was a good one, though I think his Mother probably loved him, considering what she did for him. _

_If Professor McGonagall appears out of character, she isn't. She doesn't particularly enjoy giving points to Slytherins though, and like Hermione, Regulus can appear as a bit of a know-it-all._

**Chapter Thirty Four: Slughorn's Party**

The downside to Marcus's plan of 'sucking up to Professor Slughorn' was that we now had to attend meetings for the Slug Club every week, as well as, unfortunately, his Christmas party. There were two types of people that attended the meetings: there were those that were talented at spells and potions, and there were people who had parents with lots of money or important jobs. A prime example of this was Cissy and Marcus. Cissy had rich influential parents, and Marcus was not only talented at potions, but at just about any subject he deemed worthy of his concentration.

I wasn't sure which category I fitted into but I hoped it was the 'talented' one. I was very good at potions and Professor Flitwick said that I was excellent at charms. He always gave me an 'outstanding' for my essays, even though during the past week and a half the writing had been barely legible – he was my favourite teacher. I wasn't very good at Herbology but that might have been Mulciber's fault. I thought I was also good at Transfiguration, although it was hard to tell these days. Professor McGonagall now hated me and I was pretty sure it was something to do with the fact that by the end of my first week, I had caused her to award at least fifty points to Slytherin. However, it could have been because she hated Slytherins or because she liked Sirius better than me. She'd probably overheard Sirius talking about me like I sometimes did. Once I did a spell correctly the first time I tried and she deducted points off me for being a 'show off'! I got 'A' or 'E' for the rest of my subjects.

Out of the other people that went, I could fairly easily sort out who was talented and who just had rich parents. For example, Lily Evans and my friend Stephannie didn't have parents in the wizarding world, so they had obviously got it on talent. Lily was very good at charms and potions, whilst Professor Slughorn had happened to witness one of our flying lessons and noticed that Steph was particularly good on a broomstick. It didn't matter that they were in Gryffindor – the Professor wanted them in his collection.

Another talented potion maker was a hook-nosed, greasy-haired boy called Severus Snape. He seemed to be very good friends with Lily, which I had thought was odd because Lily was a Gryffindor. Then again, I wasn't really one to talk because I was friends with Steph. Last meeting I'd asked them why they were friends:

"Lily, how come you always sit with Severus?" I had asked.

"We've been friends since we were little," she had said. They seemed just like me and Steph.

"Why are you friends? You seem really nice, but I don't really like Severus very much. He says lots of horrible things about James and Sirius," I told her. She had scowled at me, and I'd realised I had just insulted her best friend.

"James and Sirius are both prats," she had said. "I'm not surprised he was being rude about them. Have you seen the way they treat him?"

I hadn't seen them do anything horrible to Severus, but after that occasion I learnt it wasn't always a good idea to tell people exactly what you thought. This meeting, which was actually a dinner party, I avoided looking at Severus and Lily as I entered the room. I went over to sit next to Stephannie, causing Cissy to glare at me for my choice of friends. I mouthed to Cissy that there were no other seats available – what she didn't have to know was that the reason for that had been because Stephannie had saved me a seat. Marcus, who was sitting next to my oblivious cousin, grinned at me as I settled down.

Macmillan, who was sat on my other side, offered to cut my food for me because my arm was still in a bandage. I think he only did it to save me from Cissy, who if she'd seen muggleborn Stephannie and a knife, anywhere near me, could well have jinxed Steph or me into the next century.

The dinner part of the party wasn't too bad. The food was really nice – Hogwarts food was always really nice because the Hogwarts house elves were really good at cooking. The unpleasant part was the conversation. This involved Professor Slughorn asking everybody questions about their lives. He'd just grilled me on the details of my Father's job at the Ministry, which I knew next to nothing about because Father had never talked to me about it. It was very embarrassing really. Whenever I had asked at home, Father would always say that it was 'Ministry Business' and something called 'Politics', which he said was not something little boys needed to know about. It was all polite grownup code for "Shut up, it's none of your business."

Right now, Slughorn was busy questioning Steph on what he parents did for a living.

"My Mum doesn't work – she stayed at home to look after me. My Dad's a teacher at a muggle high school."

"And what does he teach?"

"Science 'O level' and Chemistry 'A level'," she said. Slughorn and most of the pureblood children looked very confused. I wasn't because Steph had told me about it before, but I acted like I was so as not to raise suspicion. "'O Levels' stand for Ordinary Levels. They're like OWLs, but for muggles. 'A Levels' are the muggle equivalent of NEWTs," Steph explained.

"Oh," said the Professor, "that's odd. What are Science and Chemistry?"

Steph explained what science was and that it was divided up into Biology, Chemistry and Physics. She said that Biology was the study or living things – like Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures mixed with a bit of human anatomy. She then had to explain what anatomy was, which – thanks to her and her books – I already knew. Chemistry wasn't that dissimilar to potions, but the products they made in class did not sound anywhere near as useful as the ones we made in the potions laboratory. Physics, on the other hand, was something completely different that sounded quite useful and interesting.

Professor Slughorn then went on to question Nicola, who was on the other side of Stephannie, and then Andromeda, who was sitting next to her. Slughorn asked Andromeda much the same questions as he had asked me, but Andromeda seemed to know a lot more about Uncle Cygnus and my Father's jobs than I did. After that, he moved on to the Ravenclaw sixth year on the other side of her. He was called Andrew Corner and his Father didn't really do anything very interesting – he worked in muggle relations. His mother was a healer.

Slughorn went around the table asking questions until he came to Barty Crouch, who talked for a good half hour about his Father's job, and then for another ten minutes about how much he hated him. According to Barty, his father, who had the same name as him, spent all of his time working and never talked to him. He'd never hurt Barty, and yet Barty hated him. I didn't really understand. My father didn't talk to me at all, and my Mother hurt me all the time, but I didn't hate either of them. They were family and you couldn't hate people that were in your family! That was just stupid!

By the time Barty Crouch Junior had stopped ranting on and on and on, we were half way through dessert. It was very a nice chocolate cake, with chocolate sauce, chocolate chips and chocolate ice-cream on top. Marcus had accidently on purpose given himself a chocolate moustache and was mimicking Professor Slughorn. Luckily, the Professor either hadn't noticed, or didn't mind.

No one bothered to point it out, but I noticed that Narcissa had also acquired a chocolate moustache, and she hadn't done in on purpose. I wondered whether Lucius Malfoy would still like to kiss her under the mistletoe if he saw her as she was – he had been talking about doing it for weeks now. I picked up a serviette and glanced at Cissy to get her attention. I then tried pointing at my upper lip and pretended to wipe it with the serviette. Cissy got the hint and began wiping it, but not before everyone noticed. Fortunately for her, no one was rude enough to mention it or tease her about it.

Although it was very delicious and it was nice to talk to both of my cousins, I was very glad when the dinner was over. Me, Cissy and Marcus made our way back to the Slytherin common room. Barty was also headed in the same direction, but had stayed behind to talk to Slughorn, so was a little behind us.

"I can't wait for Christmas," said Cissy. That's when I knew that I would have to break the news to her.

"Cissy," I said.

"What?" she asked.

"I'm not actually coming home for Christmas. I asked Father if I could stay here and see what Christmas is like at Hogwarts. It must be really good because Sirius stays here every year, and I've seen Hagrid getting in huge Christmas trees," I told her.

"But you have to come home! Christmas will be boring on my own!"

"You won't be on your own, you've got Andy and Bella to talk to. And your cousins, the Rosiers, are spending Christmas with you at your house," I told her.

"Andy's staying at Hogwarts like you are, and Bella is obsessed with her husband and the Death Eaters now. And you know I hate Evan Rosier! I am not spending Christmas snowed in with only him and his hateful brothers for company."

"Well you have to, unless you want to write to Auntie and Uncle to ask if you can stay here, and I think I know what they'll say," I said, as we entered the common room.

"Urrgh! It's not fair! I hate you!" shouted Cissy, and she stormed off to her dormitory.

"Well that was unnecessary," said Marcus, staring at the space Cissy had just been standing in.

"She'll get over it. She always does," I told him. However, he wasn't convinced and I hadn't expected that he would be. It was difficult to convince people of things you weren't sure if you even believed yourself. I had found that out when I'd tried to convince everyone that Cissy and Mother would forgive Sirius and not hate him forever. They still hadn't forgiven him after nearly two and a half years, but I still believed they might. Just.

…..

_AN: This chapter was really just a bit of character building, as well as introducing Severus, and showing Regulus's plans for the Christmas holiday. I'm not sure myself if I like the next chapter. It is really just to describe how horrible the Slytherin part of the castle is, and also to make Regulus stay somewhere else over Christmas._

_Please review._


	35. Chapter 35: So Cold

_Disclaimer:I do not own 'Harry Potter', thanks for reading. _

**Chapter Thirty Five: So Cold**

I pulled the covers of the bed over my head but it was no use. I was freezing cold. I had already stolen Avery and Mulciber's blankets – they'd gone home for the holidays so it didn't matter. I hadn't touched Evan or Barty's bed covers because I'd seen them casting blood wards on them. I remembered Mulciber had stupidly asked them to cast the same spell on his own blanket and how they had laughed madly when he then burnt himself trying to touch it. They'd lifted the spell but only after he'd black-mailed them into doing it.

I slid right down beneath the covers. My whole body was now shaking violently even though I had had multiple hot drinks before going to bed. I should have foreseen that spending the night in a cold dungeon when it was snowing outside would have been freezing earlier. There was a fire place in the common room but there were no matches for it and neither I nor Marcus - the only other Slytherin staying at Hogwarts over the holidays – could remember the correct spell to light it.

I wished I'd decided to spend Christmas at Cissy's house instead. It would have been awful because Andromeda and Sirius were both staying at Hogwarts and the Rosiers were staying, but at least it would have been warm. I thought longingly about the nice soft bed and warm fire at Cissy's house but it didn't help me get to sleep.

After what seemed like hours of lying there shivering, my legs started to feel numb. I noticed I was no longer shivering and wormed my way out from under all the blankets. I looked at the clock beside the bed and saw that it said 1:00am. I'd been lying there for five hours – no wonder I was tired! I felt my eye lids closing and drifted off to sleep.

…..

I woke up to the sound of yelling, but I was too cold and too sleepy to open my eyes and investigate. It sounded like a girl, which was odd, because Marcus wasn't a girl and he was the only other person that was supposed to be here.

"You can't stay here! Look at you, you're shivering with cold and you can hardly even stand up!" she was shouting. I recognised the voice, but I had no idea how they could have got into the Slytherin sleeping quarters.

"S..Sandy, r-really I'm f-fine!" said someone else. I thought it was Marcus, but it could have been anyone.

"I'm not leaving like this! You were slipping into a coma when I found you and if it hadn't been for that mirror you gave me, you could have been dead!" she yelled. I remembered that Sandy and Marcus had enchanted mirrors that they used to talk to each other with – Sandy must have noticed Marcus wasn't answering and come over to investigate. I assumed he had told her the password sometime previously. "Sit by that fire and stay there until you're warm!" she ordered. The fire wouldn't do any good because it had gone out ages ago.

"B-but…"

"Incendio!" said Sandy. I wished we'd taken note of that spell earlier. I could hear the fire roaring and I wished I could get closer to it but I just felt so tired. I was barely able to stay conscious.

"Right, now you're warm, you're coming with me," she said.

"But…"

"No buts, I am not leaving you here and I have no intention of spending the night in this horrible damp dungeon. And I don't think you want to stay here either, do you?"

"No, but Regulus…"

"Oh God, where?"

I didn't hear the rest of the conversation because I blacked out. When I awoke I found myself drenched in absolutely freezing cold water and shivering even harder than I had been before.

"This is not good," said Sandy. "I told you it was a bad idea to throw water on him."

"Well how else was I supposed to wake him up?" argued Marcus.

Sandy and Marcus swam into view. Sandy was wearing her winter coat and Ravenclaw scarf. Marcus had on…

"It isn't mine, it's hers," Marcus said very quickly. I hadn't in fact imagined for a second that the pink scarf and hat set was actually his. I'd actually seen Sandy wearing them, so I knew they were hers anyway. He and Sandy started to get blurry again and I had to fight to keep my eyes from closing. I thought Sandy was gesturing for me to get up, but my legs had glued themselves to the bed. Perhaps this was what Sandy had meant when she said that Marcus was slipping into a coma. I had no idea what 'a coma' was but it didn't sound like anything good.

"Marcus, help me," I heard Sandy say. Then everything went black.

…..

I awoke to find myself lying on a sofa with my head in someone's lap. It was a very comfortable sofa – that was how I knew I was no longer in my dormitory or anywhere near the dungeons. It was also warm – very warm, and the person holding me was stroking my hair. I only knew two people that ever did that and one of them was in London, miles away.

I opened my eyes for a better view and the first thing that struck me was that everything was blue, not black or green. Everything, that is, except the fire, which had orange and yellow flames like a normal fire. The one in the Slytherin common room had green fire, which didn't keep a person warm even when it was switched on and you sat right next to it. This fire was much bigger – I was at least five meters away and I could still feel the heat – and it crackled as it burnt the logs lying in the grate.

I noticed Marcus was curled up in a ball on one of the chairs, still wearing the pink hat and scarf. It didn't look like a very comfortable position at all. He would probably wake up with pins and needles, and then complain about them all morning like he always did at breakfast. His cheeks were all pink and flushed from the heat of the fire, and I was pretty sure mine would be too. He had one of the Slytherin blankets from my dormitory over him, as did I.

"Reggie? Are you alright? The others came and got me as soon as they got you here," said the person holding me. It was definitely the person I thought it was - my favourite cousin, Andromeda.

"I'm fine, I think," I said. I sat up, almost bumping my head on my cousin's chin. I wiggled so I was sitting comfortably on Andromeda's lap.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again, Reggie! You were unconscious and freezing cold when those two brought you in here! How on earth did that happen?" she asked.

"I was just a bit cold and sleepy, that's all. We couldn't get the fire to work and there was cold draught coming in," I told her.

"A bit cold? Reggie you were absolutely frozen and we couldn't get you to wake up!" she said. She was starting to cry, but I had no idea why. I was fine now – I wasn't dead or anything! "We couldn't wake you," she sobbed, "and I thought you were dead but Sandy felt your pulse and it was really faint but you were alive. Then we tried to put you by the fire to warm you up, but you started shivering really violently."

"Don't cry, Andy. See, I'm awake now. I'm fine. Please don't cry," I told her.

"I know Reggie. I was just so scared then. I thought I was going to lose you," she said, still crying.

"You won't get rid of me that easily, cousin," I told her. She laughed, wiping all the tears away with the edge of the blanket that I'd been wrapped in.

"I'm going to have a word with your head of house about this," she said. "In the meantime, you're going to sleep here, and you're both spending Christmas in here with us."

"Thanks," said. "I really didn't want to spend Christmas by myself."

"What? Did you really think I was going to make you spend the holiday in the dungeon on your own? It was always the plan to have you with me," she said. "That's why I'm staying here and not at the Tonks' house."

I hadn't realised she'd been invited to stay there. I knew she had been planning to spend Christmas with him, but I had thought they would be doing it at Hogwarts. They must have both given up their plans to stay at Hogwarts over Christmas. I was really grateful that they had – I didn't know how I could have spent the holiday on my own in the cold, dark Slytherin quarters.

...

_AN: I did this chapter so that he could stay with his cousin. I hope it is not unrealistic._

_If you read this before, I reloaded it because I wanted to change this Authors Note. A few weeks ago I put up a one shot - my first ever cross over, and it's quite bad. However, a lot of people liked the initial idea and would like me to continue it. I don't want to, but it's called 'The Lion, The Wirch and the Vanishing Cabinet' and is what would happen if the Narnia children went throught the wardrobe and ended up stepping out of the vanishing cabinet in Tom Riddle era. Would anyone like to continue this story? One possible plotline is them befriending voldemort and changing the course of history. Please could someone write a story like that!_

_Please review the chapter you have just read._


	36. Chapter 36: Mirror

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter._

_AN: This takes place during the Christmas holidays. The location of the mirror is different from in the book because it is about twenty years earlier._

**Chapter Thirty Six: Mirror**

The days I spent in the days leading up to Christmas were some of the best I had ever had. My cousin and I played for hours in the snow, usually with the friends I had met on the train – they were the only people near my age that were staying at the castle. Andromeda always made sure I changed clothes and sat by the fire after playing in the snow in case I caught a cold. She worried about me like that far too much.

On the day before Christmas Eve, Andromeda had gone off somewhere to kiss Ted Tonks under the mistletoe, leaving Steph, Robert and I to make snow angels.

"Hey look, there's your brother!" whispered Robert. I looked up from where I was lying on the ground and sure enough there was Sirius, walking along with James Potter.

I went over to get closer to them. "Sirius!" I shouted, as loud as I could. "Come and play snow angels with us! It's really fun." Sirius didn't seem to hear me, even though he wasn't very far away, so I grabbed some snow and threw it at him. It fell about a meter short of him, but it caught his attention, which was exactly what I had wanted.

Sirius started to walk over to us. "What do you want?" he asked.

"Come and make snow angels with us, Siri," I said, grinning at him.

"Snow angels are for babies," said Sirius.

"Okay," I said. He used to like rolling around in the snow but that had been nearly three years ago. Sirius was a lot older now and probably wanted to play something for older children like snowball fighting. I picked up some snow, made it into a ball and threw it at him to prompt him to play.

"Hey, what was that for?" asked Sirius angrily.

"Sorry, but I thought you might want to play snowballs instead," I told him, feeling a bit rejected. "Why don't you choose the game?"

"I don't want to play with you and your stupid Slytherin friends, Regulus," he said. I would have pointed out that Robert and Steph were not Slytherins, but Sirius didn't really give me a chance. How could he just assume people were in Slytherin house just because they talked to me? "Just go back to your stupid angel game with your new friends that are so much better than me, your stupid blood traitor brother, and stop pestering me!" Sirius then threw a big, wet snowball at me. It hit me in the face and then slid down the inside of my scarf and coat. It was cold and wet and horrible.

"But I want to play withyou_,_ Siri!"

"Well I don't want to play with you, Regulus!" he said.

"Please, Siri. I don't like us not being friends."

"You should have thought of that before you started badmouthing behind my back about me being a 'blood traitor'!" he yelled, throwing another snowball. This time he threw it harder and it actually hurt when it hit. It seemed as if Sirius had joined the snowball fight but not in the way I had intended.

"Siri, I never…" I started to say, but was hit by another snowball. I wanted to tell him that I hadn't said anything of the kind and whatever he had heard had been a lie. How could he think I'd ever say something like that?

"What happened to 'I don't care what house you end up in'? Mother said you cried the night you found out I was in Gryffindor! If you don't want to like me, you can't expect me to like you back, can you?" What Sirius had said was true. I had cried that night. However, it hadn't been because of Sirius's sorting but because I was ill, hurting, lonely and because Mother's shouting was so horrible.

"But Siri…" my cheeks were wet but I wasn't sure if I was crying or whether it was just the snowball.

"Sirius kept reading the letters from home just to see if there was anything to suggest that it wasn't true. There wasn't, so don't go saying that you still give a damn because you obviously don't!" shouted James. He was wrong about that. I did care, but Sirius had no way of knowing that, especially as he kept shouting at me and wouldn't listen. Sirius had always been stubborn like that.

"But all I did was ask Siri if he wanted to play," I said. I didn't like having James and Sirius shouting at me. It was bad enough that Sirius did it but to have James – James who Sirius appreciated and laughed with – tell me that, hurt. I was pretty sure some of the wetness on me was tears, but the others didn't notice because of the snowball.

"Well Sirius doesn't want you to play with him anymore. He has me now, and I don't ditch people just because they don't follow the same atrocious views that your family has," said James. I didn't think James had meant for that to sound as bad as it did, but he was right. James was a much better friend. He wasn't stupid enough to get himself sorted into Slytherin like me, and his peers all respected him. No one in my dormitory really liked me that much.

I looked back at where my friends were laughing and rolling about, their clothes soaked with melted snow. I wished it could have been me and Sirius there, laughing together like we always used to. But Sirius had James now. James was more of a brother than I would ever be.

"Siri, can't we just forget about all this and…"

"How am I supposed to forget the fact that you hated me for two years? You ditched me for Cissy and Rosier and all your other Slytherin cronies!"

"Siri, I…"

"Don't call me that," he snapped. Then he said the four words that I never wanted him to ever say: "I hate you, Regulus!"

I turned and ran back to the castle. I didn't stop to talk to Robert, who had looked up from making a miniature snowman (they'd got bored of the angels) to ask me where I was going. I ran through the courtyard and up the stairs. I didn't know where I was going and I didn't care. I ran up and up until there was nowhere else to go. I had to get away from Sirius and James. He hadn't said that - he hadn't – he just couldn't have. Sirius couldn't hate me. He was family. We'd promised we'd always be brothers whatever happened, and being brothers meant we would be friends for ever and ever.

I stopped when I reached the seventh floor on a corridor I'd never seen before. I just wanted to be left alone.

As I was thinking this, a door appeared in the wall. I walked through it and found myself in an empty room, except for a large mirror at one end. It was deserted, which was exactly what I needed. I sat myself down on the floor and tried to shut out the visions of Sirius saying that he hated me.

I stayed like that for a few hours, but I realised that soon I would have to go down to dinner. I probably looked awful, so I went over to the mirror to see how bad I looked. What I saw shocked me.

Instead of reflecting just me, Sirius and James and Stephannie were there too. Steph was holding me hand and grinning, while Sirius had his arm over my shoulder. James was just standing looking pleased. I looked behind me, but no one was there. When I looked back at the mirror, I was Mother, Father, my three cousins and my two uncles all standing behind us smiling. That was odd. If Mother has seen me smiling and holding hands with a muggleborn she would have thrown a fit! That was how I realised there was something unusual about the mirror.

I sat down and stared at the mirror in disbelief. It was so strange to see everyone together and not fighting. I hadn't seen Cissy and Sirius get on nicely together since Sirius started Hogwarts! Sometimes it broke my heart to think of how close we use to be and how much we fought together now. The incident today would never have happened before Sirius started Hogwarts! But I don't think it was Hogwarts that had split my family apart.

The evidence for this could be seen if you looked towards the back where Andromeda and Bellatrix were both standing arm in arm and laughing together. It had been so long since they had done that that I'd almost forgotten it used to happen. But there it was. Andromeda was still the same but Bella had been different since she had become acquaintances with the Lestrange brothers. It wasn't their fault either: their parents had drilled the idea of blood supremacy into them at such lengths that it was now in their instinct to believe it all and join the new Dark Lord.

It was the differences in our ideas that had split my family apart. There was the majority of my family, who were traditional blood purists and wanted an all-pureblood society. There was Uncle Alphard who was tolerant of muggles but never acted on his beliefs. There was Andromeda, who loved everyone, muggles and wizards alike, and there was Sirius, who claimed to like muggles, but was most likely just rebelling against everything the rest of his family stood for. Then there was me, just like Andromeda, and friends with people from all Hogwarts houses, but too frightened of people like Rodolphus and Mother to actually live. Perhaps if I wasn't so afraid of them, Sirius would like me better.

Stupid mirror. How could it show me something that I knew could never happen? All it did was make me remember how things used to be and make me wish everything could still be the same. I hated it.

I wanted to smash the mirror into tiny little pieces but I couldn't because it was Hogwarts property and I didn't want to get expelled. I really did not want to get stuck in that house again. That is, if Mother didn't kill me or cruciate me so badly that I'd have to spend the rest of my life in St Mungo's!

I pulled myself away from the mirror. It was causing me more grief than I had before and I needed to get down to the Great Hall before Andromeda got all worried about me.

…..

_AN: In case you didn't realise, that was the 'Mirror of Erised', which is 'desire' spelt backwards. I didn't know that until I watched a clip show with scene from the film. Sirius and James may seem very mean in this chapter, but that is because they have misunderstood Regulus and have heard a lot of bad rumours about him._

_I am going away to help with 'cubs' at Kinver camp today. I will be back on Wednesday._

_Please review._


	37. Chapter 37: Show Me

_Disclaimer: I don't own the 'Harry Potter' books, though I have been asked to write my own series of 50 adventure novels. _

_AN: This carries on directly from the last chapter. Read that one first if you haven't already. Next chapter is Christmas! Not very seasonal but we haven't exactly been having very summery weather here_

**Chapter Thirty-Seven: Show Me**

I cried that night. I sat through dinner pretending that everything was fine and then I waited until the others had gone to bed. I crawled onto Andromeda's lap and sobbed. The only other person in the common room was Ted, who shouldn't have really been there anyway because it wasn't his house, and who was sitting with his arms around Andromeda. He didn't seem to mind that I was interrupting his and my cousin's private time. The three of us sat huddled together like one of those muggle families where the Mother, Father and child all sit together on the sofa for a cuddle, only we weren't all family.

Andromeda was one of those people that understood everything about me. She was going through a similar thing with her sisters after having a row with Bellatrix when she joined the Death Eaters. It was similar to the argument between Sirius and I, except that Bella had actually done something wrong and I hadn't. I knew that Andromeda would never tell about Bellatrix though. They still had a mutual understanding that as long as Bella didn't tell anyone about Ted, Andy wouldn't say anything about the Death Eaters. Andromeda probably would never deliberately send her own sister to Azkaban anyway. Ted was another matter. He knew that I was upset and tried to comfort me, but he just didn't get it. He didn't have any brothers or sisters – the closest he had to one was Ryan, who was his best friend.

I still hadn't said anything about the mirror so my cousin just thought I was upset about the row with Sirius – I'd heard Sirius ranting on about it at dinner and guessed she'd heard it too.

"Reggie, Sirius will get over it soon. He'll soon realise that you're friends with people from lots of different types of families, just like he is," said Ted. "Did you tell him that Robert and Steph weren't in Slytherin?"

"He wouldn't listen. He never does. He hates me!" I bawled.

"No he doesn't, Reg. He's just being stubborn like he is at home," said Andromeda.

"But he said…" I started.

"I know, I know. He didn't mean it like that," she said.

"I expect he was just angry. Probably heard one of the rumours that's been going around about you," said Ted. I knew what he meant. Rosier and Mulciber in my dormitory had decided to tell everyone that I hated Sirius and that I thought he was a 'blood traitor'. Sirius obviously wasn't a 'blood traitor' because a blood traitor was a term used to describe a pureblood that had married a muggle (at least that's what I thought it meant) and Sirius hadn't done that – at least not yet. However, the two trouble makers had then told their older brothers in Sirius's year, who had then gone and told everyone in the whole school. Sirius must have overheard them.

"I hate those two," I said. The others knew I was talking about Evan and his friend so didn't question me. "Can't they just leave me alone? Isn't it enough that he and Barty have told everyone I'm the stupid idiot that fell over outside the library? Why can't everyone just be happy like in the mirror?" I sobbed.

"What mirror?" asked Andromeda, whilst trying to simultaneously hush me and wipe the tears away from my cheeks.

"The one upstairs that makes you see things that aren't real!" I cried. Andromeda and Ted looked very confused. "It's in a magic room and it makes you see all our family together, but they're all weird and happy and smiley."

"Show me where," said Andromeda. I told her what floor it was on. Ted picked me up and carried me, while I gave directions and Andromeda followed. Soon we were standing in the room that the mirror was in. The three of us stood in front of it. It showed a picture very different to the one that it had shown before. I could still see my happy smiling family, but it appeared to be Ted and Andromeda's wedding. Why on earth were mother and Auntie Druella wearing happy, "we're so proud of you, Andromeda," grins on their faces? It just wasn't right at all.

In the mirror, I was standing next to them, holding a baby girl with bright pink hair in my arms. Cissy was wearing a bridesmaids dress and was congratulating the happy couple. There were other differences between the reflection here and the one I had seen before: Steph was standing near me, but Ryan was present too. Ted's family were also there.

"Wow look, we're getting married, and that girl must be our daughter!" said Ted, pointing to the little baby. "Do you think this shows the future?"

"How can it? Look at them," said Andromeda. She was still staring at my Mother, who was waving to us.

"I think it shows us the thing we want to see," I said. "Before, it showed everyone just smiling and getting along. That's what I want. Now it shows your wedding, which is what you want the most, and I must be wanting that too!"

"Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi," Anromeda read aloud the squiggly writing on the mirror. "You're right, Reggie. If you read this backwards, it says 'I show not your face but your hearts desire'. It's showing our hearts desire!"

"But that must mean that your heart's desire is to get married," I said.

"No," said Andromeda sadly. "I want our family to be accepting of Ted, and be happy that we're getting married. Merlin, I wish it could happen, but I doubt it ever will."

"Lets go back. I think we'll go mad if we stare at this thing for too long. It isn't a good idea to dwell on things that will never be."

"Well said, Ted. Let's go to bed," said my cousin.

…..

_AN: Thanks to 'SaraHunterOfArtemis' for the writing. I typed it into google too to see what came up. Thanks also to 'HP Fann 7' and to 'BlackWolf2013' for the reviews. I had an excellent time at camp. Got 12 crates high at crate stacking – highest were 21 for the cubs and 22 for the scouts. I didn't want to go higher in case the tower fell on the person throwing the crates up. I also got two A*s and two As for my A level results and a B for my extended project, and have definitely got into my first choice University! Go results day!_

_I've had an amazing week, so please review and make it even more amazing!_


	38. Chapter 38: Christmas

_Disclaimer: I am not J. and therefore I do not own the 'Harry Potter' series. I do own Steph and Emily though._

_AN: Different point of view again. I have never done this point of view before and it is actually a lot harder to write this than it looks – probably because it is a male character and writing anything even slightly romantic from that perspective is really hard. Please make up your own ideas as to what happened on Christmas Eve. I have no wish to write anything explicit yet and I am not going into much detail here._

**Chapter Thirty Eight: Christmas**

I loved Christmas. Hogwarts had really gone out of its way with the decorations this year – full sized pine trees decorated from top to bottom, falling snow, holly and mistletoe. It was a beautiful way to celebrate Christmas.

I'd never spent it at the castle before because I liked to spend time with my family. However, my girlfriend had insisted that I spend it here with her. I was glad I had – you couldn't go seven years schooling in an enchanted castle and miss seeing this – it was fantastic. Also, if I'd been at home, I doubt my parents would have let us do what we did last night. Andromeda's parents were a different story. If they even knew we were together they would have cursed me into oblivion and disowned her or something.

I sat up and looked around for a T-shirt. Andromeda was still asleep. Her dark hair was spread out over the pillow making her look beautiful and cute at the same time. I left my girlfriend sleeping and slipped off to the bathroom to make myself look slightly more presentable.

It was a good thing no one else was up yet. Boys are not supposed to be allowed in girls dormitories at all – the staircases are charmed not to let boys go up them. Luckily my girlfriend had a rope with her. Still, no one saw me until I was sitting on one of the chairs in the common room, hair-brushed and dressed perfectly decently.

Suddenly someone small and skinny crashed into me and jumped onto my lap. It was Andromeda's cousin Regulus, a first year who was rather sweet if not a little too eager to please. I suspected that jumping on people excitedly was something that he used to do with Sirius, or maybe_ to_ Sirius, and that since Sirius wasn't here that meant that it was me that had to be the older brother.

"Hi Ted, where's Andromeda?" he asked excitedly. He sounded as if he had just eaten an entire bag of sugar but I knew that he hadn't because the presents were all unopened and he hadn't been downstairs yet. He was still wearing his pyjamas and his black hair was sticking up at odd angles, obviously not having been brushed. I guessed he was taking advantage of not having any parents around to tell him what to do.

I shrugged and told him I had no idea where she was but he wasn't convinced. "You do know!" he said. "The two of you went to bed together like Mother and Father do, so I know that you know!"

"Okay, she's in bed still, but don't tell anyone we slept together."

"Why not? I've slept in her bed before when I've had nightmares when I was little. Isn't it just the same?" he asked.

I opened my mouth to explain that the two things were not the same at all, when Andromeda saved the day by entering the room. She'd dressed herself and brushed her hair. She wasn't wearing any makeup but I thought she looked prettier without any on anyway. She sat on the arm of the chair and gave me a morning kiss on the lips.

"Ew! Yuck! Can't you two do that sometime when I'm not here!" said Regulus, pulling faces at the two of us kissing. To be honest it was just a quick kiss – no smooching and no tongues. Not disgusting at all, though I had to admit the face he was pulling was quite funny.

"Good afternoon," I told her, giving her a quick a peck on the cheek.

"Hey, I didn't sleep that late did I? And if I did why did you not wake me up?" I showed her my watch which said ten to seven.

"Can we open the presents now, please?" asked Regulus. Andromeda nodded and he ran over to the Christmas tree in the corner to fetch three of the huge present piles. The mound of present s for the three of us was almost as big as _he_ was.

Most of Regulus's presents were chocolate related from various first years, including muggle sweets from Steph. Andromeda and I thought it was particularly funny when Regulus read out a message in Steph's card which said: "I tried to tell Emily you wouldn't like them but she wouldn't listen. I think she fancies you because you 'saved' her," and then watched as he opened a large package from Emily containing red heart-shaped chocolates. He wrinkled his nose in disgust at them and gave them to Andromeda instead. She would probably share them with me later.

We also all had presents from our families. My parents, after seven years, had finally managed to send me my present and card by owl. The present was a small one, but the card said that my parents would buy me something bigger of my choice when I came home for the summer. It also said that my parents would support me and Andromeda all the way in any way they could. It was a lot better than I had expected – I thought they'd have gone mental after my letter explaining about what had happened with my girlfriend!

Regulus might have fallen out with his brother and the majority of Slytherin house, but he had still managed to acquire quite a lot of presents. As well as presents from his parents and Uncles, Steph and Emily, he also had presents from us, Narcissa, Bellatrix (whose present Andromeda had immediately confiscated from him – I'd ask why later), Macmillan, Robert, Marcus, Cassandra, Charity, a joint present from Avery and Mulciber (strangely), Rebecca, Nicola Ravenclaw, Millicent Crabbe, Gilderoy Lockhart, and a few other first years from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. It was a lot of presents; however he still got a little disheartened at the lack of presents or acknowledgement of his existence from Sirius. It was a shame really – I'd watched him spend hours making a card for Sirius because he couldn't go out and by presents (I'd offered but he didn't let me). It would probably end up being thrown in the fire by Sirius.

"Reggie, why don't you run upstairs and get dressed before breakfast? Then we can all go down together," said Andromeda. He gathered up a handful of opened presents and ran up towards the dormitory he was staying in.

As soon as her cousin was out of sight, she sat down sideways in my lap and put her arms around my neck. I put my arms around he and pulled her in for a proper morning kiss. She pressed her soft, lip-gloss-wet lips against mine and kissed me. I deepened the kiss and she stuck her tongue in. I kept it gentle though – nothing like what Regulus and his friends would call a 'washing machine' kiss.

We broke apart when I felt cold water being poured over me. Becky. The so called blonde first year was standing about a foot away from us holding a half-empty bucket of water. Regulus was behind her and the two of them were giggling madly.

"Ted and Andy sitting in a tree, K.I.S.S.I.N.G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes…" the two of them sang. Unfortunately for them, I had fairly long arms and managed to grab the bucket of water from them. I threw the rest of its contents over them, causing Becky to scream and Regulus to run around like a lunatic. I silently cursed Ryan for teaching them that song. For one thing, the word order needed to be changed.

My girlfriend performed a drying spell and we all went downstairs for breakfast.

…..

_AN: Thank you for reading and thanks to all those people that reviewed. Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon._

_Advice to writers: I have recently been reading the 'Morganville Vampire' books and since lots of people keep saying they need help making things more British, I thought I'd point out a few things that are 'American only' that I picked up from reading the other series. Some things I picked up were that the vampire book refers to 'Hose', in the sense of hosiery. English people usually say socks or tights. Also we put babies in push chairs or prams. Also, whilst reading I had to actually ask someone what a 'Twinkie' was, so it is unlikely that marauder era British people would know either. The education system is completely different, so if you are going to talk about a characters background at school, please check this. It is different in Scotland. My other advice to other writers is also to check dates of films, books or music albums before mentioning them._

_Note for readers: If you have any requests for scenes or character points of view can you please leave them in a review. I don't know whose view to do next. I have already planned Regulus's love life but if you have any predictions about it please feel free to have a guess in a review. It isn't anyone obvious so far._

_Please review._


	39. Chapter 39: Dead Sirius

_Disclaimer: I don't own the 'Harry Potter' books. The only characters here that are mine are Steph, Samuel and Emily._

_AN: Thanks to everyone who reviewed. This one's quite long._

**Chapter Thirty-Nine: Dead Sirius**

All too soon the holidays were over and students began returning for the next term. That meant lessons, which I had been looking forward to, but unfortunately meant that I had to move back into my own dormitory with the other Slytherin first years. At least I would be warm though; Avery had managed to acquire a portable campfire that we could have in our room at night. There was no need to go stealing other peoples' blankets.

I felt a bit left out. Avery and Mulciber had become best friends with each other, so were sitting there discussing something secret that I wasn't allowed to know about. I hoped it was something nice like what to get me for my Birthday in February but it probably wasn't. Avery was okay really but Mulciber was a bit too obsessed with the dark arts like Bellatrix was. That, and the fact that he was clumsy as hell meant that I didn't really feel very safe anywhere near him. On the other side of the room, Crouch and Rosier were trying to outdo each other by describing how expensive their presents were. Barty Crouch may have disliked his father enough to rant about him at Professor Slughorn's diner party, but he certainly wasn't a stranger to having colossal amounts of money spent on him.

I decided to ignore them and instead read the much more interesting book about centaurs (the creatures themselves as well as their folk law and astrology) that Cissy had given me. Bellatrix had given me a book called 'Secrets of the Darkest Art'. Andromeda had confiscated it almost immediately saying that it was full of lots of horrible dark magic things, but not before I'd already looked at some of it. I'd opened it at a random page out of curiosity and had found a rather awful ritual all about killing people and then putting bits of your sole into random objects. I hadn't got any further down the page than that before it had been taken from me, and I was quite glad of that.

Lessons started again that morning. I had charms first and then Defence Against The Dark Arts where I sat next to Robert. Avery had seated himself on my other side and Mulciber was next to him whispering something I couldn't hear. The row behind us was all Hufflepuffs.

"Today class, we will be learning all about Boggarts," said the teacher. "I know some of you may have heard that I've covered them with the third years but I think this class is ready to learn about them." Mulciber and Rosier were very happy at this news because they both had brothers in third year and would be learning the same thing. I wasn't. I had hated Boggarts since the incident in the attic, and I wasn't looking forward to everyone knowing my greatest fear.

Uncle Cygnus had told me that Boggarts could change when you get older into even scarier things. I wasn't sure what it was the Boggart had turned into when he stepped in front of me, but it had been humanoid in shape – he'd told me that when he was at Hogwarts the Boggart had taken the form of a giant spider. I tried to think what the Boggart might turn into this time but I couldn't think of anything scarier than what it had been before.

I wasn't really listening at all and only looked back up at the front when everyone else burst into laughter. My friend Robert was standing at the front of the class with a manticore in front of him. The manticore looked as if Cissy had given it a 'make over' with bows and ribbons and make-up all over it. It looked completely ridiculous.

"Now, everyone get in a line so you can defeat the Boggart one at a time," said the teacher. I reluctantly got up and did as I was told.

"I bet your going to be useless at this, Reggie," said Mulciber, pushing his way into the line. The only person who was excused from doing the task was Robert, who had already done it. Millicent was at the front of the queue and as soon as the Boggart saw her it turned into an enormous Cobra.

"Oh my God. She's in Slytherin and she's scared of snakes! Now that's hilarious!" laughed Avery. He then began discussing the various ways of teasing her with his best friend.

"Shut up, she can't help what she's scared of," I said. I didn't much like her but no one really deserved the teasing I knew they would be giving her. Avery might not be as handy with curses as the Rosiers were but he knew exactly what to say to make people scream and cry just as much as if he was.

"I bet your Boggart turns into something really stupid like a flobberworm. Do you think you can handle a big, scary flobberworm, Reggie?" taunted Mulciber. I ignored him.

"Riddikulus!" shouted a very nervous sounding Millicent. The cobra shrank in size as if it had just been an inflated balloon, and began whizzing around the room as if the air had all come rushing out of it. The whole class laughed and then it was Grace's turn. Hers was a black scary-looking horse-like creature with wings – a thestral. It was obviously wasn't real because I couldn't see real ones. I didn't want to ever see a real one. To be honest, the idea of being able to see one was scarier than the creature itself. When she said the incantation it turned into a pink Pegasus.

"Yuck, that's gross," commented someone in front of me.

Next was Emily. The girls seemed to be all at the front of the line, while all the boys were nearer the back. What I saw next was by far the worst thing I'd seen yet.

It was a little boy. He looked a lot like Emily, except that he was about four or five years of age and a lot more transparent than Emily was. He had a gash of silvery coloured blood near his hairline and more streams of blood coming out of other parts of him. He looked like a child version of the 'Bloody Baron'.

"Sam? Is that you?" asked Emily. I could see that she had tears spilling out of her eyes. The little boy nodded and then opened his mouth to talk. More blood came out and Emilty screamed.

"What's wrong, Em? Don't you like me anymore?" he asked. He stretched out his hand towards Emily but it went straight through her. Emily didn't reply; instead she just cried harder. Macmillan kindly stepped in front of her, making the Boggart change once again into another creature – a Hungarian Horntail, I think. Emily went back to her place, still sobbing quietly.

The lesson continued. I learnt that Barty Crouch feared rejection from his Father, Rosier was scared of his oldest brother doing the same, Mulciber was scared of fires, and Avery was scared of being disowned for talking to half-bloods. Then it was my turn.

This time the Boggart turned into two distinct forms, one smaller than the other. The first shape to form was that of Sirius. He was black and blue from bruises, was shaking from having had the Cruciatus curse used on him, and I could also see what looked like whip marks all over him. Behind him was the tall figure of Rodolphus Lestrange holding him by the neck with his wand pointed at Sirius's throat.

"This is your fault, Regulus! If you hadn't told Steph about everything none of this would be happening," Sirius shouted. I stood there frozen. How could I possibly make this situation funny? The Professor just stood there watching me, as did the rest of the class. Emily was covering her eyes with her hands. "Well don't just stand there! Do something useful!" screamed Sirius.

I raised my wand to cast 'Riddikulus' but Rodolphus shouted at me not to move. I glanced at the teacher who was nodding at me to cast the spell. "Rid-" I began.

"Avada kedavra!" Green light shot out of the end of Rodolphus's wand. It hit Sirius and Sirius's lifeless body fell to the floor. I stared at it for some time. I knew it wasn't real but that didn't make it any less disturbing. Sirius had died because of me and I'd done nothing to stop it from happening.

"Please wake up, Siri," I said, crouching next to him, even though I knew it was no use. Sirius didn't move and I burst into tears. The other Slytherins were laughing their heads off. I couldn't understand why; it wasn't funny in the slightest bit.

The Boggart was temporarily weakened and the teacher tried to shove it in a drawer of the desk. Unfortunately that meant that his back was to the rest of the class and his full attention was no longer on us.

"Look everyone, little Reggie's crying, just like Emily!" shouted Barty, laughing manically about it.

"You're such a baby, Reggie! It's not even real!" laughed Mulciber. He then started singing, "Regulus is crying, Regulus is crying," over and over again.

"Aw, does Reggiekins not like seeing his blood-traitor brother get what he deserves," giggled Evan. "Pity that. I thought it was funny."

"Shut up!" I screamed, shaking with fury. "It's not funny at all. I bet you wouldn't like it if it was your brother getting murdered!"

"No, but my brother's not a blood-traitor so it's not like it's ever gonna happen," said Evan between fits of laughter.

"Neither is mine. He hasn't married a muggle. If any one's a blood traitor it's An-" I stopped myself before I said it. How could I even have thought of saying such a horrible thing about my own cousin? Stupid Evan for making me say that. And why wasn't the teacher stepping in? Oh yeah, he was still trying to get the Boggart into the drawer.

"He hangs around with mudbloods, so therefore he's a blood traitor. Can't you just get that into your stupid head, you idiot? Sirius Black deserves everything he gets!" shouted Evan. I was about to answer back when someone stepped in front of me.

"Petrificus Totalus!" shouted Robert. A jet of light hit Evan square in the chest, and his legs snapped together with his arms straight by his sides. Evan lost his balance and fell over in the full body bind curse. "Wow, I've never done that for." I was just about to congratulate him on his spell when Barty started to say a spell. The two of us dodged to the side, just as a purple-coloured curse was thrown our way.

"That's enough boys. Five points each from your respective houses for duelling during lesson time." The teacher then gave everyone that had faced the Boggart, including the four of us, an extra ten points each to their house.

…..

"I can't believe he said that. I mean, well, it isn't even true. And to think he found it funny! Funny? That someone was murdered? That's just wrong!" ranted Robert.

"I know - it's disgusting. I bet they're going to end up being death eaters one day," said Macmillan. "I feel sorry for you having to share a room with them. Must be hell." I nodded. It was awful.

Robert, Emily, Macmillan and I had escaped the lesson relatively unscathed and were on our way to our usual table in the library to wait for our other friends. We each had a tonne of homework to do, including a charms essay and a sixty-inch essay on Boggarts. Emily's eyes were still red from crying and mine weren't much better.

"Who was that man? The one that, you know…" began Robert. I knew he was about to say 'killed your brother' or something like that and that he was either afraid to say it, or thought it was make me cry again. Or both. The latter part was certainly true because I felt tears welling up.

"Rodolphus Lestrange. He's married to Bellatrix and he's horrible to me," I said.

"What did Sirius mean when he said it was your fault?" asked Emily. You'd think I'd have hated the questions. However, strange as it may have seemed, talking about it felt good. Robert had already made Emily talk about her little brother Samuel, who had been murdered four years ago, and Emily looked better for getting it off her chest. I quickly made sure no one else was around before continuing in hushed tones.

"Rodolphus did something to me – well he still does it actually, when he can. He told me not to tell anyone or else he would kill…" I took a deep breathe, "or he would kill Sirius."

"What did he do?" asked Robert.

"I really can't say. If someone overhears then-"

"I get it," he said. Then he whispered in my ear to write it down. I grabbed a spare piece of parchment and wrote "Crucio" in the smallest writing that I possibly could. I passed it across the table to him.

"Oh Merlin! Why hasn't anyone done anything about it before?" He wrote down something else on the piece of paper and handed it to me. All the time, Macmillan was whispering in his ear that firstly I hadn't told anyone, and secondly, no one in my family cared enough to notice. That wasn't strictly true: my three cousins had all noticed I wasn't well, but hadn't thought it was because of me being cursed.

I read the piece of paper. _How often?_

_It used to be almost weekly – every time Bella visited. He can't get me here though,_ I wrote back. We carried on a conversation about the essays whilst still passing the notes.

_Is that why you stayed here for Christmas? _Robert asked.

_Yes, and also because my family were spending it with the Rosier family, _I told him.

_Does Cissy know? _Robert again.

_No. She knows he murdered Tigress though. That was the first time he used it on me._

_What? You said she got hit with one of them muggle things! And then you were ill the next day when I wanted to show off my new broomstick! _That one was Macmillan – sometimes he could be so dense.

_You do realise the torture curse actually hurts don't you? And still hurts after? I didn't exactly want to go and play broomsticks when I just wanted to lie in bed, did I?_

The conversation continued for quite some time. The three of them managed to get a lot of information out of me before the others arrived. They then promised not to tell anyone anything about it ever, in case the word got back to the Lestranges. Robert then threw the piece of parchment in the library fire and we watched it burn.

…..

_AN: That was longer than I intended. 2737 words. I was originally going to leave it as just the Boggart, but then I couldn't think of how to make a dead Sirius Black funny, so I changed the ending quite a lot. I hoped you liked it. Oh and 'one of them muggle things' means cars._

_Please review._


	40. Chapter 40: Threats

_Disclaimer: I am not the author of the 'Harry Potter' books or films._

_AN: This chapter takes place about half an hour after the previous one._

**Chapter Forty: Threats**

The rest of the time in the library was fun. Steph, Becky and Nicola joined us – they'd just come from potions with Ravenclaw and Gryffindor together, and they talked to us about their lesson, which had been much less scary than our one had. They'd been making laughter potion and they'd each been allowed to taste a bit – Becky was still a bit giggly from it. We also talked about silly things that had happened to us and Steph told everyone of the numerous occasions when I'd been scared of muggle electronic things like washing machines and vacuum cleaners. Of course, she had to explain what they were, but once everyone understood, they found it pretty funny. I found it quite funny too.

"I can't believe you were scared of that and not scared of Rodolphus," whispered Robert as the two of us walked out of the library.

"I'm kind of scared of him too you know," I whispered back, "and his brother. He can do it too now." Unfortunately, although Rabastan had been unable to perform unforgivable curses aged fourteen, by the time he was sixteen (last year) he had done enough 'practicing' to have completely mastered the curse.

"From what you said, it sounds like your family sucks," said Robert.

"No, I love my family, though Mother can get very angry sometimes. I just don't really get on very well with the Lestrange brothers," I said. It was true – I did love my family. I had Sirius, Cissy, Andromeda and Bella to talk to, two nice uncles and slightly strict parents. Mother could be quite unkind, but her punishments never came close to what the Lestranges could do. Maybe 'don't really get on well with' was a bit of an understatement though.

"Are you mad? They could go to Azkaban for the way they treat you!"

"Shh, keep your voice down. I don't want everyone to know and I don't want my family in Azkaban with the horrible dementors!" I told him in hushed tones.

"I meant the Lestranges," he whispered back.

Suddenly I felt someone grab me by the robes around my neck, almost strangling me. I saw that another person had also grabbed hold of Robert too and the pair of us were pulled sideways into an empty classroom out of sight of the rest of the school. I looked up at the attackers for they were both more than a foot taller than me.

I recognised them immediately: the one holding Robert's hands behind his back with one hand and used the other to point his wand at Roberts throat was a fifth year – Rosier's brother. The other was a seventh year - Rabastan Lestrange. Both of them looked really angry.

"What were the two of you saying about me?" demanded Lestrange.

"Um, we weren't talking about you, we were talking about your brother. Reg said Rodolphus married his cousin," said Robert, very quickly whilst looking down at his shoes.

"That's not what I heard," said Rabastan. Then he turned to me. "You'd better tell me the truth or else he," he pointed at Robert and mimed snapping his neck, "gets it." Robert whimpered but kept his mouth shut. "now tell me the truth. Now!"

"I said that I got along well with Bella, but that I didn't really get on with Rodolphus very well," I said.

"Is that all? I'm sure I heard something about Azkaban," said Rosier. He shot a look at Rabastan and I knew right then, that they'd heard the whole conversation. "Now what, Robert, could Rabastan have possibly done to get sent to wizarding prison? What lies has your little friend been telling you?"

Robert didn't say anything. Instead he stared hard at his captor, lips sealed shut.

"Hmm, perhaps he'll tell us with a little persuasion," said Rabastan. He pointed his wand at my friend so I stepped in front of him.

"I didn't tell him anything," I said. "He was just exaggerating because I said I was scared of you. I haven't told him anything about you-know-what!" He seemed to buy it.

"Fine, but keep your mouth shut, both of you, or might just add your mudblood friends onto the list with Sirius. Come on, Rosier."

"No, I need to talk to them about something else," said Rosier. He waited until his friend had gone before turning back to Robert and me. "My brother tells me you threw a curse at him ?"

"He said Sirius deserves to die," I said.

"Well he does," said Rosier, rather too brightly. "That's no reason to curse one of your fellow students is it?" I felt my blood boil with anger and I looked across at Robert who was seething. He looked about as angry as I felt.

"No one deserves to die – not even Rodolphus," I replied through gritted teeth.

"What do you have such a grudge about the Lestrange brothers for?" asked Rosier. Obviously he didn't know much about them. "And you're slightly wrong on the 'no one deserves to die' part. I can think of a few people – all them mudbloods for a start. When I become of age I'm going to join that 'Dark Lord' every one's talking about and finally get rid of them." He said it sweetly as if he really thought it was true that they should all be killed. It was the tone of voice one might use to say something like: "and by the way, you're wrong about choc-chip muffins – I can think of loads of nicer things, chocolate cookies for a start." It was disgusting and, well, wrong.

"Oh and by the way, I know a lot of interesting curses, so if you hurt my baby brother again you may find yourself in the hospital wing for quite some time. I've got to go to class now, so bye!" He ran off to whatever class he had next. I gave Robert a horrified look and then I ran off to Transfiguration while he had Herbology.

….

When I arrived at my lesson Professor McGonagall deducted five points from Slytherin for my tardiness even though it had only been three seconds since the bell had gone. Everyone else was already seated and they were all waiting for the lesson to begin. I sat at my usual place in front of Grace and Millicent and waiting for Professor McGonagall to begin.

"Well done for loosing us points, Reg," whispered Grace. "Don't you even care about the house cup?"

"Shut up Grace, unless you want to loose us more," whispered Millicent.

The Professor stood up and walked to the front of the class. "Today we will be learning how to transfigure one material into another. Watch." She pointed to a wooden bowl on the table. It turned into glass and back again. "Turn to page fifty three of your textbooks."

I did as I was told and looked in the book. It explained the theory of how to change wood into other types of material and how to change it back. It also explained for other types of material. Then it said that it was illegal and impossible to use the spell to create precious metals such gold or silver. I pointed my wand the table and thought about turning it into something else. I hadn't really thought it through and I ended up covered in ink as the table collapsed.

"Regulus Black! Did I tell you to turn the table into parchment?"

"No," I said. I'd done the spell I'd intended to do though. Why wasn't she pleased? I quickly changed the table back into wood.

"That'll be another five points from your house team. Wait until I tell you to do something before you do it, Black," said the Professor. She then began handing out small cuboid-shaped things. They looked like house bricks.

"Reg, could you get any more stupid?" hissed Grace. I decided to ignore her. At least I knew how to do the spell.

"Yeah, even my brother's not that dense," said he friend. Millicent's brother was in Cissy's year and was one of the most unintelligent people I had ever met. As far as I knew, he couldn't even read. He was also gullible enough for Cissy to have conned him into playing 'tea parties' with her nearly three years ago.

"Now, it is not possible for me to turn this into food or any precious metal," said Professor McGonagall. "Does anyone know why?"

My hand shot up because it had said in the textbook. No one else seemed to know the answer. The Professor looked around the room for someone else to put their hand up instead. When no one did, she asked me.

"Gamp's law of Elemental Transfiguration states that one cannot turn things into food. Once you have food though, you can multiply it and get more food, Professor."

"Yes, that is correct. Now try and turn the block into wood." I looked at the relevant part of the textbook and found the incantation. I did it on the first try but I didn't put my hand up to say I had done it; the Professor usually got annoyed when I did things straight away. Instead I played with it, changing it backwards and forwards between brick, stone and wood.

"Can you quit showing off and help us you idiot?" complained Millicent. I left the brick as wood and turned around. I used my quill to point out the part of the text she should have been reading and then read it out very slowly to her. I wasn't sure she understood. Grace told me to stop behaving like a stupid muggle and to read it properly. I told her muggles didn't read transfiguration books and that they could all read better than she could anyway. She just scowled back at me.

Eventually I managed to get them both to accomplish the spell. The Professor walked over and picked up their blocks, giving us a point each for completing the task. It wasn't much but it was better than nothing. By the end of the lesson, most people had completed them task and we were all dismissed.

…..

At dinner I sat next to Cissy; she wanted to introduce me to her older friend Lucius Malfoy, which was silly really because I already knew him from family dinners. However, it turned out to be a good idea when Cissy asked me about my day. It seemed as though Malfoy was determined to do anything he could to win Cissy over, so agreed to 'talk to' and if necessary 'protect me from' Rosier, who was one of his best friends, if he gave me any trouble.

…..

_AN: Sorry if this is a bit jumpy. I was trying to put in some actual lessons as well as Regulus getting into arguments, which he seems to be doing a lot – with everyone. I have mentioned that Crabbe's father is a second year. If you want to know, Goyle's father is in fourth year. Malfoy and Rosier are both in fifth year. Rabastan is 17 with a summer birthday and his brother is about 22._

_I think I might do a chapter in another Death Eater point of view soon, but not for a while – I have already done Cissy and Andromeda. Thanks to the people who keep reviewing this. I know it looks like I have quite a few but it is only two per chapter. I will be writing the sequel soon. It starts with Andromeda's wedding, but I haven't finished this one yet._

_Please review._


	41. Chapter 41: Happy Birthday

_Disclaimer: I don't own 'Harry Potter', Hogwarts, or any of the characters mentioned in the books._

_AN: This takes place a few weeks after Regulus's third encounter with a Boggart. (I mentioned in early chapters that his first was when he was four.)If it seems a bit confusing at first, bare with it. All is explained._

**Chapter Forty One: Happy Birthday**

_It started out fairly normal. I was on my way to visit my friend Stephannie and it was raining – not heavily, but enough to soak into my clothes and make puddles on the pavement. However, there wasn't anything odd about that because it was the beginning of February. It was when I turned the corner onto Steph's street that everything went wrong…_

_I stopped in front of her house, or what was left of it anyway. The roof and most of the second story had been blown off it and the rest was black and burnt looking._

_"Steph? Ryan?" I couldn't find them anywhere. I even looked in all the hiding places in the house where we used to play hide and seek. Nothing._

_I crawled into the tiny space between the cupboard under the sink and the washing machine – that was where we often hid. That was when I heard it; footsteps coming towards me. And I could see the silhouette of a young man. It looked like it could be Ryan so I peeped. Bad mistake – it wasn't Ryan at all – it was Rabastan. What on earth was he doing in Steph's house?_

_His brother was with him and he shot a red curse at me. Everything went black._

_When I woke up I was in a very dark room; it looked like a cellar. My hands and feet had been tied together with rope and I had been thrown into a very uncomfortable position. As my eyes became accustomed to the darkness, I noticed that Sirius and Steph were also present and they had both been tied down and were unconscious too. Bella was seated on a chair in the centre of the room._

"_He's awake. You can come in now," she said. The two Lestrange brothers entered the room. Rodolphus walked over to Sirius and jabbed him sharply with his wand. Sirius woke up just as Rodolphus dragged his limp body over to where Bella was. Rabastan did the same with Steph._

"_Is it true, Reg? Are you really friends with this mudblood?" Bella asked. She already knew the answer though: a definite yes. "Pity, because it really complicates things." She turned to her husband, who spoke next._

"_You have a choice, Regulus - your brother or the mudblood. Which ever one you choose, we'll let them live," he said._

"_What happens if I don't choose?" I asked._

"_We torture you until you do," said his brother._

"_Go on then."_

"_Crucio," said Rodolphus, pointing his wand at me. Bella and Rabastan did the same, so that all three were cursing me. I couldn't help screaming as pain three times as bad as usual hit me. I don't know what I screamed. I told them to stop, but they didn't._

"_They won't stop until you give them an answer," said a new voice. "I've seen them do this before, only with muggles." Their face was surrounded by shadow and my vision was blurry anyway so I couldn't make out whom they were. I certainly didn't recognise the voice._

"_I won't choose, ever!" I screamed. Rodolphus withdrew his wand and the others followed suit._

"_If you won't choose then we'll have to kill them both, won't we Bella?" said Rodolphus. Bella grinned and raised her wand._

"_NO!" I screamed. "Bella stop! Don't do this! It's Siri, you can't kill Siri!"_

"_Shut up, Regulus. He's a blood traitor. He isn't our family anymore. Avada Kedavra." A flash of green light and Sirius's body went limp and still. _

"_Siri! No! Please don't be dead! Bella I hate you!"_

"_No you don't Regulus. Everyone knows you can't hate me. I'm your family aren't I?" she said. As much as I hated her right then, I knew it was true. Another flash of light from her husbands wand, and Steph was dead too. "Oh, and Happy Birthday, cousin," she said, still grinning._

…..

I woke up shaking, sweating and screaming for Sirius, who of course wasn't there. The bed sheets were in a tangled mess all around me. I knew it had to be a nightmare – it was term time, so we were all at Hogwarts – why would I have been going to Steph's house in the middle of the school year? It had felt so real though. I curled up into a ball and tried not to cry – the sobs escaped anyway. I wanted Sirius to be there – it wasn't fair we were in different houses. How was I supposed to make sure he was still alive when he was on the other side of the caste?

"Regulus, will you shut up? Some of us are actually trying to get to sleep!" I looked up to see a very annoyed looking Barty Crouch, sitting up in bed with his straw-coloured hair sticking up at odd angles like James Potter's hair usually did. He had huge dark circles around his eyes from lack of sleep, which was almost entirely my fault.

"Why don't you shut it too, Barty? He can't help having nightmares," said Avery.

"He can help screaming and waking everyone up every single night though. I haven't had a good night's sleep for a whole month because of him," said Evan. Great. I'd woken up the entire dorm, except for Mulciber who slept like a log.

"Just get some sleep you two. I'll deal with Reg," said Avery. He climbed out of bed and I noticed he was wearing pyjamas with teddy bears all over them and couldn't help smiling a bit behind his back. He went into the bathroom and came back with a glass of water. "Here, drink this. It'll make you feel better. Promise," he said as he handed me the glass. I drank it. It was cold and refreshing and it did make me feel better just like he'd said.

…..

I woke up the next morning with someone shaking me. "It's half seven, Reg. I know you feel awful – I do too, but we have to get breakfast before lessons," said Avery. I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

"Can't I just go back to sleep?"

"No. Cissy will probably kill me if you don't show up at breakfast. Anyway, Happy Birthday." He handed me an interestingly wrapped package. It looked as if he'd run out of paper half way through and stuck bits of different coloured paper over the gaps. I think he was used to having his Mother or a house elf do it instead.

"I don't feel much like celebrating," I said, laying the package down on the bed. I'd open it later.

"Rubbish. Come on, you don't want to miss Cissy's special surprise do you?"

"What surprise?" I said, whilst hurriedly dressing myself.

"Did I say surprise? I didn't mean that I meant…"

"I get it. I'm not supposed to know."

Once I was dressed, the two of us walked into the common room, where I was ambushed by Marcus, who tied a green and silver scarf over my eyes. He then started leading me towards the Great Hall. At least I thought that was where we were going. When we reached our final destination, the scarf was pulled off and I nearly fell over backwards in surprise.

The entire Hall had been decorated to celebrate me Birthday, much to the Gryffindors' distaste. There was a huge banner that said 'Happy Birthday Regulus' on it above the Slytherin table, and instead of the usual breakfast items, on all tables there were loads and loads of different types of cakes. There were also balloons of all different shapes and sizes hovering in mid air all over the room and glitter confetti everywhere. I saw James and Sirius were both playing with the balloons – trying to catch an enormous red one that was bigger than they were. In the midst of it all was Cissy, carrying a huge stack of presents, and Andromeda, who was carrying an enormous chocolate cake.

Cissy dropped the presents on the table and ran over to us. Her eyes had dark circles around them as if she had stayed up all night making the cake with her sister and wrapping the presents. She probably had because her sister looked tired too.

"Happy Birthday, Reggie," she said, enveloping me in a huge hug. I hugged her back. I couldn't believe they'd gone to so much trouble just for me – it was just overwhelming. All my depressing thoughts caused by my bad night's sleep vanished and were replaced by the happy feeling of having cousins that really cared how I felt.

"Thanks Cissy. You really don't know how much this means to me," I said. I knew it sounded a bit cheesy but that was how I felt.

"It wasn't just me, Andromeda helped. We went down into the kitchens and made the big cake – the house elves made all the little ones. Then when the cake was cooking, I wrapped all the presents and Andromeda made all the decorations. Then we put chocolate on the cake to make it extra special," she said. "Do you like it, Reggie?"

"Of course I like it, Cissy. How could I not?" I said, giving her another hug. I didn't really care if the cake tasted disgusting; it was the fact that they'd spent almost the entire night making it that made it special.

As we started to make our way towards Andromeda, I looked across at Gryffindor table and saw that Sirius was glaring at us. He was probably jealous because they hadn't done the same for him – I would have done, but I didn't think about it. Instead, I had just sent him a card, something Quidditch related, chocolate and a picture I'd drawn of him and James playing Quidditch – I didn't even know if he'd liked it or not.

My older cousin had placed the cake on Slytherin table next to all the presents and was sticking candles on it. There were twelve candles, all different bright colours, and she lit them all with her wand (she could have done it the muggle way but we were on the Slytherin table today and most Slytherins did not like muggle methods). Then somehow, she managed to get three out of four of the Hogwarts houses to sing the 'Happy Birthday' song to me. I then blew the candles out and wished for Sirius and me to be friends again. I didn't tell anyone though because wishes don't come true if you tell people them and if you don't believe.

After the candles, me, Cissy, Marcus and Avery (who, this month, had decided to be friendly with me) all sat facing the wrong way on the Slytherin bench. Andromeda and my Ravenclaw friends all sat on the Ravenclaw bench that was next to us, the wrong way round so that we were facing each other. Andromeda cut the cake for me so that I didn't make a mess and handed some pieces around, saving some for my other friends and Sirius if he wanted any. Then we started opening all of the presents.

Word must have got around to everyone that I liked books about magical creatures because a lot of the presents were books about them. I also had a book about caring for broomsticks from Becky, who was Quidditch obsessed, chocolate and sweets from a lot of people and a purple fluffy pet puffskein from Cissy and Andromeda. My present from Bellatrix, which came by owl post, was another Dark Arts book that my other cousins didn't want me to ever look at. Andromeda confiscated it off me. I didn't mind because I didn't want to read it anyway.

Then I ran to put everything under my bed and get to charms class, which was my favourite lesson.

…..

_AN: Thanks for reading. Did you like Regulus's nightmare? I think it was really sweet for Narcissa and Andromeda to plan all that for Regulus. What do you think? _

_If this chapter looks like it has been updated it is because I made a mistake in the penultimate paragraph, giving Regulus a present that hadn't yet been invented. Oops._

_Oh and this may sound really dumb but how is 'Walburga Black' actually pronounced?_

_Please review._


	42. Chapter 42: Secret Passageways

_Disclaimer: I don't own 'Harry Potter'._

_AN: Thanks to everyone who has been following this story so far, and especially to BlackWolf2013 for reviewing so often. Please continue to review. This chapter, Regulus gets put in a rather awkward situation and makes a discovery._

**Chapter Forty Two: Secret Passageways**

"Lily, will you go to out with me?" I heard James Potter yell across the Great Hall.

"Not in a million years James," was the reply. I watched as Lily Evans stormed out of the Great Hall, glaring behind her at a rather stunned-looking James Potter. The boy himself sighed and sat down next to his best friend Sirius and I went back to what I was doing before.

It was supposed to be a Hogsmeade weekend because it was Valentines Day. The third years, like Sirius and James, and anyone older than them would mostly be going to the local village of Hogsmeade on dates after breakfast, and the ones that hadn't got dates would still be going there. That meant that the first years and second years practically had free reign of the school.

As it was, Cissy and me were sat together having breakfast. We were wearing weekend clothes, which for me meant muggle-style clothes (jeans and a blue jumper) and for Cissy meant a green and silver velvet dress and tights. The puffskein, which Cissy had named 'Fluffball' was sitting squeaking on the table between us. I think Cissy must have only chosen it because she wanted one herself – she spent more time playing with it than I did. I had to admit it was really soft to cuddle and the way it purred was cute.

We watched in silence as the owls swooped into the Great Hall. A large tawny owl dropped a pink envelope, a bunch of roses (pink ones because red was for Gryffindor and Cissy hated that house) and an enormous box of chocolates onto Cissy's lap, while a tiny owl dropped a small pack of chocolate frogs and a red envelope onto mine. Cissy went white with shock.

"Oh my, is that a howler?" she asked. I looked at the envelope carefully. It had a border of white heats around the edge of it and didn't really look like a howler.

"I don't think so," I said, "maybe it's a Valentines Day card."

"Who in their right mind would give you a Valentines day card?" sneered Evan, who had just entered the hall and was walking past to meet his friends. He snatched the envelope from me and tore it open.

"Hey, that's mine! Give it back!" I shouted. But Evan Rosier had taken out a bright red, hand made card with pink, sparkly hearts on it.

"_Dear Reggie, I don't know if you feel the same way about me, but I like you a lot. I think we have a lot in common. I'll never forget that you_ _saved me in my moment of need. Love Emily. PS, hope you like the chocolates,"_ mocked Evan. "What is this rubbish?" he added, ripping the card into shreds so that the pink glitter fell all over me and Cissy and the table. He then stalked away to sit with the others.

I didn't really know what to do. Emily was a good friend but I didn't like her in any romantic way. I had no idea what to say that wouldn't make her upset.

"Do you like her?" whispered Cissy, examining her gifts from Malfoy.

"She's just a friend – I don't love her, but I don't know what to say to her," I whispered back.

"I'll come with you," she said, and started dragging me towards where Emily was sitting.

"Hi, did you like it Reggie?" Emily asked. I noticed she had done her hair more nicely than usual and was wearing shiny lip-gloss. I didn't know what to say so I just stood there.

"Er, Reggie wants to talk to you about it somewhere more private," said Cissy, looking around at all the Hufflepuffs that were staring at us. She led us out of the Great Hall and into a little side chamber.

"What did you want to talk to me about Reggie?" she asked.

"Um…" I began.

"Go on, just say something," encouraged Cissy.

"Um… You're a good friend Emily," I started. Emily's smile was quickly vanishing and was being replaced by an increasingly depressed look as I talked to her. "I like you, I really do, but I don't want to be in relationship with you – at least not yet."

"But you stuck up for me. Don't you like me anymore?" she said, looking tearful. Cissy put her arms around her.

"Look, Reggie is still your friend Em; and he always sticks up for friends – even Kreacher. He's just twelve and how many twelve-year-old boys do you know that like kissing?" said Cissy. Emily smiled a bit: Cissy was right about the 'kissing' thing, especially kissing with tongues involved – it was all a bit slimy and yuck really.

I told Emily I'd share the chocolate frogs with her and she cheered up considerably. However, just as she was wiping her eyes with the handkerchief I'd lent her, the door to the side chamber burst open and Malfoy walked in.

"Hi Cissy, I've been looking for you everywhere! Would you like to accompany me to Hogsmeade?" he asked.

"I'd love to, but I'm not old enough," said Cissy. Malfoy winked at her.

"I know a secret passage we can use so nobody will ever know. Come on," he said. With that, he took Cissy by the arm and started to walk away from us.

"Let's follow him," I whispered. Emily nodded and so the two of us followed a little way behind, walking on tiptoes so we didn't make any noise. We followed them up about five or six flights of stairs until we came to a mirror. Lucius said some kind of password and the mirror swung backwards. We followed them through it and closed it behind us.

Everything was pitch black. "Lumos," I said, causing the end of my wand to light up. We were in a long dark corridor but I couldn't see Cissy or Lucius anywhere. "Lumos maximus," I said. The light grew brighter but there was still no sign of them. "You're not scared are you?" I asked Emily.

"No," she said, but I could feel her trembling beside me. I had to admit I was a little bit scared too – we had no idea where the passage led or what could be lurking in it.

"Do you want to go back?" I asked. She shook her head so we started walking down the dark passage. It didn't get any less frightening until about twenty minutes of walking later, the passage started getting lighter. I couldn't help smiling a little as we walked past a heart shape scratched into the wall with the words 'Cygnus and Druella' written in neat handwriting not unlike my own.

We emerged from the tunnel into what looked like Hogsmeade station. I'd never seen Hogsmeade in daylight before and thought it looked delightful with all the little shops and things. Unfortunately, we hadn't brought any money with us, so we had to go back and get some.

…..

_AN: Thanks for reading. I wasn't really sure about posting this chapter at all. I've already written chapter 43 and I think it is more interesting than this one. The sequel to this story will be coming out soon – working title and summary on my profile page. If you can think of a better title, please tell me in a review._

_Please review._


	43. Chapter 43: House Elves

_Disclaimer: I don't own the 'Harry Potter' books._

_AN: Hi, this is in another point of view again. Guess who?_

**Chapter Forty Three: House Elves**

I hated Regulus Black. He was one of the most annoying people I'd ever met and to make it worse, everyone seemed to love him whether they were mudbloods, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws or second years. He was both Professor Flitwick and Professor Slughorn's favourite pupil and even Professor Binns seemed to 'appreciate his intellect'. The only teacher that shared my opinion of him being an annoying show-off was Professor McGonagall and she didn't like me either. In fact I think she hated me even more than she disliked Regulus – mainly because I messed around with Barty during the lesson and never bothered to do any of the set tasks.

Right now, Regulus was getting ready for bed and was changing into a pair of black pyjama bottoms and a greenish-blue T-shirt. I couldn't help smirking at the fact that he still had toothpaste around his mouth and still went to bed with that stupid toy dog. I'd tried to burn it once but Regulus had had some sort of fit and Narcissa had come running to his aid. Of course, along with Cissy came Lucius Malfoy, who, to be honest, really scared the hell out of me – Lucius knew more curses than both of my older brothers put together. I hadn't tried burning the dog ever again.

Merlin, Regulus was such a baby. He was supposed to be three months older than me but he still cried out in his sleep whenever he had nightmares, which was almost every night. I swear I saw a furry toy Hippogriff amongst all the clothes and books (he'd run out of room on his shelf) in that trunk of his. And then there was that stupid purple squeaky thing that he and my prissy cousin Narcissa adored so much.

"Regulus, if you don't shut that fur ball up right now, I'm going to give it to Tristan to use for quidditch practice!" I shouted. Tristan was my older brother. He was nearly two years older than me and at the beginning of the year had nicely secured himself a position on the Quidditch team as a beater. I could just imagine him swinging his beater's bat at the stupid creature and sending it flying into the forbidden forest. If it was lucky, it would be killed instantly before the acromantula got to it.

The 'thing' continued purring noisily, so Regulus got out of bed, picked it up and started towards the door.

"Hey, where are you going?" asked Avery. Avery was the sort of person that befriended people when it suited him. Right now, he had chosen to side with Regulus against me and my other dorm mates, because Regulus had a rather large collection of chocolate frogs and other sweets left over from his Birthday. Being friends with Regulus also meant that he received 'help with homework' from him, so his grades were now at 'Exceeds Expectations' instead of their usual 'Acceptable' or 'Poor' that they normally were.

"I'm taking my pet somewhere where he'll be safer," replied Regulus. He disappeared and came back five minutes later empty handed. "Narcissa and her friend Thalia are looking after her," he said to no one in particular as he came in and got back into bed.

I turned out the lanterns and must have fallen asleep because the next thing I heard was screaming. Not the 'dearest cousin Bellatrix just put a frog in my bed' sort of screaming, but high-pitched, pure terror kind of screaming.

"Aaaargh! Siri! Please stop hurting him! No not him, please stop! Bella, help us!" I knew it was Regulus without looking up because firstly, it always was, and secondly, only he would be stupid enough to get upset over someone hurting his blood traitor brother.

I looked at the watch I'd left on the bedside table. It said quarter to midnight; we hadn't even been asleep for three hours yet! Stupid Regulus having stupid nightmares! I hadn't had nightmares since I was six, when a nearly-eleven-year-old Lucius Malfoy told me there was a three-headed gorgon in the wardrobe. Mum had had to come into my room in the middle of the night to calm me down and I'd ended up in the big bed with Mum and Dad and a mug of hot chocolate. I seriously doubt Regulus's mother would ever have done that with him – perhaps that was why he still had nightmares.

I'd just rolled over and got myself comfortable when Regulus started screaming again. This time it was something to do with Bellatrix and Rodolphus. I sat up again and looked in his direction. He was still asleep but he was tossing and turning all over the place. He was also shaking violently as if he was under the Cruciatus curse. My brothers had told me the effects that it theoretically had on a person, but neither of us had ever seen it in real life(though I was pretty sure my oldest brother could perform the imperious curse). He obviously wasn't under it though because no one in the room was casting it on him – not that any of us actually knew how to do it anyway.

I wasn't really sure what to do; it wasn't right. As much as I hated Regulus, he was obviously suffering quite a lot. He was making quite a lot of noise and I really needed to get to sleep. Someone had to sort this problem out and it wasn't going to be me because I was too tired and wanted to stay in my warm cosy bed for as long as I could. Instead, I woke up Avery, who, miraculously, was still fast asleep.

"What the hell do you want at this hour?" murmured a very sleepy Avery.

I pointed at Regulus, who had stopped screaming, but was now awake, shivering violently and whimpering something or other about Sirius over and over again like he always did. I couldn't really understand why Regulus was so upset about Sirius – any idiot could tell that Sirius didn't give a damn about him, but Regulus always insisted that Sirius would come around eventually and that everything would be fine again. So if everything was going to be fine, what the heck was he so upset about? I supposed I would be really upset if one of my brothers started hating me but, then again, my brothers weren't stupid Gryffindor blood traitors.

"He's your friend so do something to shut him up will you? This has been going on far too long," I told Avery.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked me.

"I don't know. Take him to the hospital wing and explain the situation to the school nurse. Maybe she can do something about it," I said. Avery seemed to think that was a good plan. He put on a dark-green, flannel dressing gown, and started helping a rather disorientated-looking Regulus towards the door.

Meanwhile, I snuggled back down into the duvet and tried to get back to sleep. The dormitory felt eerily quiet now that they were gone – all I could hear was Barty's regular, soft breathing and Mulciber's slight snuffling.

…..

That night I had the best night's sleep I'd had in ages. I slept for over seven and a half hours before Barty started shaking me to get up. It was seven-thirty exactly, meaning that Barty and Mulciber had both had ten and a half hours sleep each, and were really bouncy because of it.

"Where's Regulus gone?" asked Barty. "I normally wake up first and he wasn't there. He usually waits for Avery, but he isn't even awake yet."

"Oh, Avery took him to the hospital wing in the middle of the night. I don't know where he is now though," I said.

As it happened, I didn't see Regulus until lunch time. It turned out that the school nurse had given him a sleeping draft, which had made him sleep in so much that he missed first lesson. He had then had to stay in the hospital wing for a full check-up before being released. He now had to have some sort of counselling sessions with a teacher and take a dreamless sleep potion as a temporary thing. However he looked cheery and happy enough when I caught a glimpse of him talking to his friend Marcus.

I sat next to Tristan and Barty at lunch. My brother was talking about a fight he'd had with Sirius and James that morning, and about some of the really creepy things that their Divination teacher had said. Apparently, me, my brother and Regulus are all going to die really young – how wonderfully cheery.

"Hi, can you sign this for me?" someone asked me. I turned around to see Regulus standing behind me with Marcus, holding a rather long-looking roll of parchment.

"What is it?" I asked. Really I just wanted him to go away. Instead he handed me the piece of paper:

_Dear Minister,_

_It has come to my attention that some house-elves are treated very badly indeed by the families that own them. House-elves are sensitive creatures that have feelings and often feel the need to punish their selves when they disobey orders. I am writing to you to propose that there should be a new law against the domestic abuse of House-elves and children._

_Yours Sincerely,_

_Regulus A. Black_

_PS. The following people agree with me and have signed their names below…_

There was then a list of about ten names with signatures next to them, presumably there were only ten because Regulus had only just started going around the table. Among the names were those of Narcissa Black, her best friend Thalia Edison, and her current boyfriend Lucius Malfoy. I guessed Lucius had only signed to please Narcissa, as he treated his own House-elf, Dobby, like vermin.

"You do realise don't you, that there is already a law protecting children against domestic abuse, Regulus?" I asked.

"Is there?" he said, sounding puzzled.

"Of course there is. Did you really think that if people treated children the way most families treat house elves no one would do anything about it? Do you think people wouldn't notice and start questioning why children were all covered in bruises?" I asked. Honestly, for someone so clever, Regulus could be so dumb sometimes.

Regulus was hastily crossing out the 'and children' part of the letter, so that he wouldn't look ignorant when the letter was sent.

"Don't your parents hurt you when they're angry with you?" asked Regulus. He sounded a little hurt and I almost felt sorry for him.

"No," my brother answered for me, "sometimes Mum gives us a slap on the cheek if we do something we shouldn't, but only enough so that we get a red cheek. We never get bruises. Do you?"

Regulus didn't answer but instead asked us if we wanted to sign the piece of paper.

"If we sign it, will you go away and stop bothering us?" I asked. Regulus nodded and handed over the paper and quill so that my brother and I could sign it. Barty just glared at him.

Regulus moved around the tables, managing to get signatures from all the Hufflepuffs and most of the Ravenclaws, but none of the other Slytherins. He even went across to the Gryffindor table and got signatures from a red-headed mudblood called Evans and her friends. I laughed out loud as his older brother yelled at him and told him that Kreacher was just a stupid house-elf and that he'd never get approval at the Ministry anyway. I laughed even harder when his friend Remus Lupin actually signed the thing.

Then I think Regulus did something that shocked almost everyone in the room - he carried the role of parchment with all the signatures on it to the teacher's table. But that wasn't all. The idiot managed to convince Professor Slughorn, Professor Flitwick, Hagrid and Albus Dumbledore to sign the wretched thing.

…..

_Thanks to everyone who has been reading this story; that was yet again a long chapter. Thank you especially to BlackWolf2013 for your really helpful and encouraging reviews. I'm sorry to say that this story is nearly finished. There are only a few chapters left to go. However a new story will be coming soon…_

_Please can you help me think up a title and summary for the next story, which tells of Regulus's second year and the trouble he has keeping his promise to Cissy not to become a traitor like Andromeda, and him struggling to keep his letters to Andromeda secret. There will also be more polyjuice potion combined with Quidditch, more arguments with the marauders, and a secret romance element with a muggleborn girl involved. I won't go into much detail about the plot, but there is a makeshift title and summary on my profile page if you want a look._

_Any help will be appreciated. I would also like to know how you feel about this story. Is it too long? I decided it might be better to only do one year of Regulus's life per story. What do you think? Do you want me to put more of Andromeda and Ted in? Or more of Bellatrix and Cissy? The main events for the next five stories are planned, but the rest is not set in stone._

_Please review._

_Sadie._


	44. Chapter 44: Night Raid

_Disclaimer: I am not the official author of the 'Harry Potter' books, nor do I have the right to commercially publish anything to do with the 'Harry Potter' characters, plots or locations._

_AN: Thanks to everyone for reading this fanfiction. None of this chapter is a nightmare – it is all happening to Regulus and Cissy whilst they are awake. I am publishing this early because I'm on holiday tomorrow._

**Chapter Forty Four: Night Raid**

I'd never seen Mother and Father so angry with me before; they were even more furious with me than they had been with Sirius, who was spending the whole of the Easter Holidays with his half-blood friend Lupin. I'd thought they'd been angry with me when I'd tried to free Kreacher, but compared to this, that had been like getting a smack on the cheek. To make it worse, Father and Uncle Cygnus were as angry with me as Mother was.

Perhaps I should explain: a few weeks ago, I had got some Hogwarts students and teachers to sign a letter to the Ministry of Magic concerning the welfare of House Elves. The Ministry, much to my surprise, had actually taken the letter seriously – probably because it had the signatures of Rosiers, Blacks and Malfoy on it, as well as Albus Dumbledore. The issue had then been discussed at the wizard council meeting, which had my Father and Abraxus Malfoy on it. Neither of the two men had been very happy. What was even worse, though, was that after my Father and his friend had voted against any new law, everyone else voted for it to be illegal to abuse house-elves. That had made Father furious, especially when he found out that I'd written the letter in the first place.

Of course, making things illegal didn't mean that people didn't do them. Evan Rosier and one of his brothers had told me that it was illegal for parents to physically hurt their children as a method of telling off. From the fact that my parents had done exactly that, I could tell that my parents had never really obeyed the law. According to Robert, Marcus and just about all of my other Hogwarts friends, using the Cruciatus Curse as a method of punishment was also illegal. That didn't seem to stop Mother though.

To say I wasn't scared of Mother right now would be a lie. To be honest, I was almost as afraid of what she might do to me as I was of Rodolphus. I would actually rather be in a room with his brother, Rabastan right now – at least his cursing wasn't very strong. The only consolation I really had was that Lucius Malfoy was probably getting the same treatment from his family as I was.

I grabbed some parchment and a quill and began writing a letter to my friend Robert, replying in the affirmative that I would like to stay at his house for a while. I just couldn't bare the idea of staying here on my own for any longer. What Evan had said about people noticing if people had been treated like House Elves simply wasn't true: when Mother hit me she left bruises and sometimes cuts, but the never showed because I wore clothing. Only an idiot would walk around all day with all of the bruises actually on show!

I quickly tossed the letter I'd been trying to write to Robert into the drawer of the bedside table as Mother entered the room. She looked angry, and I realised she was holding Athena in one hand and the chocolate egg and letter I'd tried to send to Sirius in the other.

"What is the meaning of this, Regulus?" she asked, glaring at me.

"It's just an Easter Egg, Mother. It is traditional to give people Easter Eggs at Christmas," I said.

"Regulus, you know you are forbidden from having any communication with Sirius. You are already starting to become too much like him." Secretly I was pleased that I was becoming more like Sirius and less like Mother and Father. I watched as she tossed the egg into the fireplace on one side of my bedroom, where it melted all over the floor. She made to do the same thing with Athena but then remembered that she was Father's owl and not mine. "Regulus, you mustn't borrow your Father's property without asking."

"Mother, I gave the letter to Kreacher to take. I haven't been allowed out of this room since I got back from Hogwarts," I said.

"Don't talk to me like that! And haven't I told you not to talk to that House Elf. Are you stupid or do you purposefully disobey me? When I get my hands on that House Elf I'll…" Mother shouted.

"Don't you dare hurt Kreacher because of something I've ordered him to do!" I cried. "Kreacher has to obey orders Mother."

"What is it with you and House Elves, Regulus? Why do you think they have any right to be treated as equals? They're not wizards! They're not even people!" shouted Mother. "And then there's your stupid obsession with Sirius being a perfect little angel. Let me tell you now, Regulus; Sirius is not an angel, he doesn't care about you and probably never will so stop dreaming and face reality!"

Mother screamed at me for quite some time. I tuned out and let the hateful words wash over me. It was all utter nonsense anyway. Sirius was not any of those things Mother was saying and I certainly wasn't as idiotic as she was making me out to be. I only noticed she had stopped when a blue light from a curse I'd never seen before hit me. My arms and legs hurt and blood was coming out of tiny cuts all over them and from my chest too. It hurt so much that I blacked out.

When I woke up, it was pitch black and someone was whispering something. Something was tickling my cheek. I reached up and felt something soft and smooth, yet scratchy at the same time – a piece of hair. It was long and loose and was all coiled up like a ringlet.

"Can you sit up? Please say you can because we have to go now," whispered the voice. It was Cissy's, I thought, though I wasn't entirely sure. "Come on. Please get up." I slowly sat up and rubbed my eyes, but couldn't make out much because it was dark. I felt dizzy and collapsed back on the bed. The person whose voice it had been tried to haul me to my feet and staggered towards the fireplace.

"Okay, I know you'll hate this, but it's the only way. Everything else is blocked off, and I'm not climbing out of the window looking like this." I saw green flames appear, which lit up the room. It was Cissy holding me: she was barely wearing anything, expect what looked like a ripped nightdress, and I could see bruising on her. She was also covered in soot as if she had just used floo powder.

"What the hell happened to you?" I asked.

"Nothing much," she said. "Father wasn't very happy that I signed the letter. It doesn't hurt; I'm perfectly fine, really." Her voice was quavering and I could tell she was anything but fine. She sounded as if she was about to burst into tears and was only just holding herself together.

"What about the nightdress?" I asked. "Why are you…?"

"It's the middle of the night, why wouldn't I be wearing this," she said. "As for the rips… You were bleeding, and it was all I had. I think Auntie must have used a cutting curse on you." I looked down at my body and noticed that under my pyjamas, Cissy had bandaged me up in something silky, and something else white and frilly that looked like a petticoat. And yes, Cissy did wear a petticoat to bed.

"Come on, Reggie. You have to come with me now," she said.

"Where? Why?" It was the middle of the night and I was still confused.

"I don't know but we can't stay here! We're running away!" Before I could protest, she had grabbed a handful of floo powder and jumped into the fireplace. She didn't even say where we wanted to go.

I landed, coughing and spluttering in Cissy's arms, in the dirtiest fireplace I had ever seen. It looked even worse than the one in 'Borgin and Burkes' which Bella had taken me to once. I felt my chest tighten, and I could hardly breathe. This always happened when we used the floo network, which was why Father was too embarrassed to ever use it with me in public. Cissy was talking to me, telling me to breathe slowly in and out. I tried to but I couldn't get any air in.

"Reggie, please just breathe properly," Cissy said. She had her hand placed gently on my chest and was choking back tears. I couldn't bear seeing her like that so I tried again. A little air went into my lungs. It hurt like hell because of the wound from Mother's cutting curse, and from when she'd broken my rib during her first raging fit after I returned from Hogwarts two days ago. I concentrated in getting in some breathe and not panicking. Panicking was the worst thing to do when that sort of thing happened: that, and crying.

"God Reggie, you had me really worried there," said Cissy, pulling me into a hug.

When my breathing was back to normal, I had a look around at our surroundings. The first thing I noticed was that there were a lot of book shelves, laden with thick, heavy, leather-bound volumes. There was even a floating book that you could put your hand straight through, entitled 'The Phantom Book of Phantoms'. It was from the same series as 'The Invisible Book of Invisibility', 'The Monster Book of Monsters' and the hundreds of copies littered around the shop of 'The Duplicating Book of Duplification'. The second thing I noticed was the pale corpse on the floor.

Cissy screamed and clutched me. The dead body of a man was lying on the floor with his arms outstretched, his eyes still open and eerily still. I recognised him; he was the man Bella had paid over the counter when we had gone shopping for books on Knockturn Alley. I realised that this was that very same shop.

I hugged Cissy as she collapsed into quiet sobs. "I hate this, Reggie. I want to go home – I really do – but Father… Father isn't being like he normally is. He hurt me Reggie," she cried. She wiped her face on my pyjamas and then cried some more. I wanted to comfort her but I didn't know what would make me feel better – I was used to being hurt but Cissy wasn't. She was almost as pampered as Evan was. "And it's worse, Reggie. I got Lucius into trouble too – I made him sign that thing even though he didn't want to. What if he hates me now?"

"Cissy, if he liked you enough to sign his name in the first place then he won't feel any different about you afterwards," I told her. She cried even harder.

"But they hurt him because of me," she wailed.

"Cissy, please stop crying. If any of this is anyone's fault it's mine because it was my stupid letter to start with," I said. She carried on crying. My shoulder was getting very wet and it wasn't just from the blood that had been seeping through my makeshift bandages.

"Cissy, we can't stay here," I added, gesturing towards the dead shop-keeper. She nodded and this time it was me helping her get up.

"Where do we go, now?" she asked between sobs.

"I don't know. Let's try the Leaky Cauldron and then we can at least get a bed to sleep in. We can think about where to go next tomorrow," I said. We made our way out of the shop through a broken window and out onto the street. It was freezing cold and I shivered in my thin pyjamas. I felt Cissy shiver too in her nightdress. We walked down Knockturn Alley, trying to keep as far away as possible from the pitch-black shadows, and turned onto Diagon Alley.

It wasn't much better; in fact it was worse. Shop window displays had been smashed – the shops having been broken into. There were frightened shop owners, aurors and a group of people in long, black cloaks and masks, all firing spells all over the place. I quickly pulled Cissy under a canopy above one of the shop windows as a stunning spell almost hit us. She gripped onto my hand tightly and I was glad we both had our wands.

I watched as a dumpy woman and two screaming children were dragged out of the shop across the road. The boy looked about six or seven years old, whereas the girl looked about two years of age. Two cloaked figures held them still, while a third pointed their wand at the woman and used the torture curse on her. It was one thing to have it done to yourself, but quite another to see it done to another person - the woman was screaming for them to stop and started convulsing – it was horrific to watch. I instinctively held my free hand over my cousin's eyes so she wouldn't see, but she yanked it away.

We watched in stunned silence as the woman and her two children were both murdered, but that wasn't the worst thing we saw that night. When all three lay motionless, the murderer took off the mask and revealed themselves. Cissy screamed but I just stood there, as motionless as the victims, as the culprit apparated away. My worst nightmare had been confirmed.

It was Bella. She was truly a murderer and she was laughing.

When she'd stopped screaming, Cissy just collapsed in a heap on the floor. She wasn't unconscious but confused and as upset as I felt. I tried to keep it together for her and so I sat down next to her and stroked her hair like Andromeda did when we were upset. I didn't mention that Bella used to do it too, with the emphasis on 'used to'. The way she was sitting now, Cissy just looked broken, as if everyone she thought she loved had been turned against her. She still had me and she still had Andromeda, though I knew Andromeda would be leaving sooner than we'd first thought. I didn't want to think about how Cissy would feel when her sister left - hurt, angry, but hopefully not murderous.

We sat together until another group of Death Eaters flew past on broomsticks, followed by Aurors. They wouldn't have noticed us at all if Cissy hadn't screamed when one of the Aurors got hit with a curse and fell from the broom. The Auror got up unhurt but instead of going back to join the pursuit, he started to move towards us. At least he wasn't another Death Eater.

…..

_AN: So Bellatrix is now a fully-fledged Death Eater, and both Cissy and Regulus have seen her in action and are horrified at what she has just done. If you would like to know what happens next, please review._


	45. Chapter 45: The Auror

_Disclaimer: I do not own the 'Harry Potter' series. _

_AN: I really hope you enjoyed my last chapter. This carried on straight from where I left off._

**Chapter Forty Five: The Auror**

The man heading towards Cissy and I had blonde, floppy hair and looked vaguely familiar. He stopped about two meters away and gave us a puzzled look.

"What are you two doing out here on your own?" he asked. "Are your parents taken hostage?" He had stepped a little closer and was now examining the bruises on my cousin's arm.

"No," I said. "We went the wrong way on the floo network and ended up in a bookshop. We were trying to get to a friend's house but we got the wrong address."

"And I guess you got hurt in the cross-fire," he said. I nodded even though it wasn't strictly true. It was better to think I'd been hit by a random Death Eater than for him to prosecute our whole family – even if one of the Death Eaters had been Bella. "Any curses in particular?" he added.

"Blue light," I said, remembering Mother's curse. Perhaps he would recognise it.

"He got hit with a cutting curse. It was bleeding everywhere and I had to use my dress," said Cissy, pointing at the material on my arms.

"I think I know the counter curse. Hold still." He pointed his wand at my arms and I felt the pain go away. Cissy unravelled her handiwork and although the material was heavily blood-stained, my arms were perfectly unmarked and blood free. I thought about mentioning the other cuts but for some reason Cissy elbowed me in the ribs, which was almost always a signal for me to shut up.

"Now where were you trying to get to?" asked the Auror man. I glanced at Cissy and waited for her to say something. She didn't, and I realised that she was just as clueless as I was when it came to deciding what to do next. I thought about all the people I knew: Becky was my first thought, but everyone knew that both of us knew how to get to her house so our cover story wouldn't work; Steph was muggleborn so was out of the question for Cissy, Macmillan and Cissy were no longer on speaking terms with one another after an incident involving pink shoes and green-coloured slime; Marcus was on holiday somewhere in the Mediterranean with his parents, and Nicola was staying at Hogwarts to keep Sandy company.

"Robert's house, I think. He said I could come and stay at his house for a while if I wanted," I said.

"Why were you going to his house in the middle of the night dressed in your PJs with no suitcases?"

"Because… because… I don't know!" I said. It was too hard not to cry anymore, so I let myself do so. I was tired and hurt and I'd just watched… I'd just watched my cousin kill three people right in front of me and actually enjoy doing so. I just wanted the nightmare to be over and to wake up and have Sirius and Andromeda tell me it was okay and that it would never happen – only it had and it was real and not really a nightmare at all. I wouldn't even have minded waking up out of it all to have Evan Rosier yelling at me – at least it wouldn't be true that way.

"Shh," he said. "I didn't mean to make you upset. Look, everyone has their reasons and I won't tell anyone if you were running away."

"How did you know we were running away, Mr – who are you again?" said Cissy.

"Sorry, I forgot to say. I'm Michael Harrison, and I just guessed, that's all. It's not every day you see children wandering about on the street in their nightclothes. What might your names be?" Right then, I suddenly realised why he looked familiar – he had the same surname as Robert did. Before I could say anything, Cissy answered and asked another question.

"I'm Cissy Black and he's Reggie. We're cousins. You won't make us go back to our parents will you?"

"Unless I can find somewhere for you to stay, I might have to," he said. He seemed to think for a while before adding, "Hang on, is your name Regulus Black?" he asked.

I nodded. "Yes, why?"

"It's just my son's been going on and on since he got back about letting you stay for the Holidays. He said you had to live with Rodolphus Lestrange and you needed a break. I didn't believe him at first because Lestrange is a known 'Death Eater' but if it's true – no wonder you ran away."

"I don't actually live with him, "I said," but…" I trailed off because I couldn't really tell him about the things Rodolphus liked to do to me. I sincerely hoped Robert hadn't blabbed the whole thing to his Father.

"He fired that curse at you didn't he?" said Robert's Dad.

"No, Auntie did that," said Cissy before I could stop her. "Rodolphus does the Cruciatus curse on him." The man didn't really seem that surprised. I turned to Cissy.

"How you know that? I've never told anyone except three Hufflepuffs!" I hissed at her.

"I saw him do it. He said he'd kill you if I told anyone," she whispered to me.

"So what the hell are you telling him for! We don't even know him!"

"He's an Auror and it's not like he wasn't going to find out anyway!" argued Cissy.

"If it makes you feel any better, I'd already guessed it. When your son starts asking questions about the after effects of unforgivables and about the Cruciatus curse, you get a little suspicious. And when he told me about you having to put up with a known Death Eater in the house once a week, and how he's had threats from the said Death Eater's brother, I started to think something was really wrong. And then if you look at the state of you both…"

He stared at us for a moment or two and then decided that it would be best for us to go home with him and get ourselves some rest. I was glad he hadn't pressed about what Cissy had said about Mother. He seemed fairly trustworthy and I didn't think he would tell Rodolphus what he knew, but I didn't want him to put Mother or Bella in Azkaban. No matter what they had done, they were still my family and they could still make it right again.

...

_AN: I am going to Wales for a while. I'll update when I get back. Please help me think up a title for my next story and_

_Please review._


	46. Chapter 46: Safe

_Disclaimer: I did not write the 'Harry Potter' books._

_AN: Thanks to all reviewers. Please read and enjoy, then leave a review at the end._

**Chapter Forty-Six: Safe**

Cissy wouldn't stop crying. Not even when the Auror picked her up and apparated us both back to his nice, warm living room and fetched us blankets. I wanted to cry too, but I couldn't because I had to be brave so that Cissy would feel better. Instead, I stayed relatively calm and sat myself on the sofa, with my cousin lying down on to of me. It hurt where her head leant against me, but I didn't complain.

At least we were warm, even if we weren't exactly comfortable. The man walked out of the room, and I heard a noise that sounded a bit like Steph's mum's kettle. A couple of minutes later, two mugs of hot chocolate had been placed on the table in front of us. I tried to make Cissy move so that I could lean across to get at it but she ended up clinging onto me harder so that I couldn't move at all.

"Reggie, what are we going to do? Auntie is going to be even more cross with you and Father is going to be angry that I made us run away. And I left Andy and the puffskein behind," she cried. I put the arm that wasn't pinned down between her shoulder and the sofa, around her.

"There's no need to worry – I'll sort everything out," I said. I didn't really know how I was going to make everything okay again but I would. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't stay away from home forever. For one thing, what would happen when it was the summer? Where would Sirius go? Without me at home, I was sure Mother and Father would be awful towards Sirius, perhaps treating him worse than they did with me. I couldn't let him go through that, and I knew Cissy didn't want to leave her own sister behind either.

"Have you got an owl I can borrow?" I asked the man, who claimed to be my friend's father. He walked off again and came back with a large male snowy owl – I knew it was male because it was white all over and the females had patches on them. The man looked as if he was unsure of what to do with us.

"Here you go," he said. I quickly wrote a letter to Andromeda explaining some of what had happened. I left out the bit about the cutting curse, the dead body and what we had seen Bella do because she didn't really need to know and it didn't really fit on the paper anyway. Hopefully she would be able to cover for us.

While I was doing this, Cissy had untangled herself from me to get one of the hot drinks. I managed to sit up and lean across to pick up my own, but as I did so I managed to reopen one of the wounds from earlier when Mother had thrown a cutting curse at my chest. I gasped in pain, which made Robert's Dad come over and start investigating what the matter was.

He lifted up my sooty pyjama T-shirt and looked confused and shocked when he saw it. It was only as deep as if someone had put a fish knife into some cheese in a fit of rage, and some by some kind of accidental magic had mostly become scabbed over (Cissy had only seen to the littler cuts on my arms and legs), but had now started bleeding again. He told Cissy to put pressure on it, ran off and came back with a bottle, which said 'essence of dittany' on it. It stung worse than Ted's mum's horrible antiseptic wipes that had been used after I cut my knee on a visit - I couldn't help whimpering slightly as he poured it on.

I drank the hot chocolate in silence, feeling embarrassed about whimpering and about the tears that were threatening to run down my face. There had been no need to cry. It had only been a cut and if I'd behaved in such a way at Grimmauld Place, Mother would have taught me another lesson for being such a crybaby. Besides, the hot chocolate was really delicious and was something that I was never given at home. It would be a shame to spoil it with salty horrible tears.

"Reggie, we're not at home anymore. You can say something," said Cissy. There wasn't really anything I wanted to say, except 'Thank you for the hot chocolate', which I'd said already when it was brought for us. Instead, I curled up in a ball on the sofa and went to sleep.

…..

"Michael! Why are there two unwashed kids asleep on my sofa!" I woke up to the sound of a woman yelling. I opened one eye and saw a middle-aged woman with dark-blonde frizzy hair and a cooking apron. She was wearing oven gloves and looked very surprised indeed to find Cissy and I lying on her furniture.

"Sorry, Carrie. They arrived last night by floo powder. They're Rob's friends from Hogwarts," said Robert's Dad. He looked rumpled and sleepy as he walked into the room, running a hand through his blonde mop of hair. He obviously wasn't keen to share the details of what had happened last night with her. Maybe he thought she would start fussing the way Steph's mum did when she discovered I was below the ideal weight she thought I should be.

"I thought we agreed that he could have one friend round, not two, and why are they so dirty? Do you have no sense at all, Michael? They don't even look well. Can't I leave you to your own devices for an hour or two without you doing something stupid?" She ranted on and on about how her husband should have given us a bath and three-course-dinner, and how we should have been put in the guest bedroom. Robert's father's only reply to the whole thing was that it had been the middle of the night.

"Mum, Dad, what's going on?" said someone from the kitchen door. I was relieved to hear the voice of my school friend. His Mother opened her mouth to answer when all of a sudden there was a loud crack and my other cousins appeared in the centre of the room.

"Reg! Cissa! What in earth were the pair of you doing last night?" Bella shouted at us. I don't know why she'd come – I hadn't asked her to. She looked flustered and angry and scary all at the same time. If Cissy wasn't awake before, she was now.

"The floo powder went the wrong way," I said.

"Don't lie, Alecto saw you anyway and I know you wouldn't travel by floo powder unless you were forced at wand point," said Bella.

"Cissy made me," I mumbled.

"Well it was a bit stupid of her to do so wasn't it?" she said, turning to Cissy. "Come on, Cissy, Mother will be wondering where you are." With that, she grabbed hold of Cissy and apparated away, leaving everyone, including Andromeda and Robert, staring at the place they had been.

"Who was that?" asked Robert's mother.

"Bellatrix Lestrange, suspected Death Eater, wife of Rodolphus Lestrange and sister to both Narcissa and Andromeda Black," said his Dad. His wife gasped in shock. "And before you ask, I don't know." Meanwhile, Robert came over and sat on the sofa next to me and Andromeda sat on the other side.

"Why are you here?" I asked my cousin. Robert looked as if he wanted to ask me the same thing.

"I told your Mother I was taking you here, so I had to come to make it convincing. Auntie now thinks you are staying at your friend's house, but I couldn't make anything up for Cissy because they'd already noticed she was gone. Then Bella came home and told everyone Cissy had been with her the entire night and that there was no need to worry. I think Mother was scared she'd lost her," said Andromeda.

"Can I stay?" I asked. Everyone then agreed that I could stay for the remainder of the Easter Holidays. I wouldn't have to go back home to my angry parents at all.

…..

_AN: Thanks for reading. I had a lovely holiday – one sunny day, one cloudy day and one extra rainy day, and the sea was too cold. We went to Oakwood theme park though, which was really good. Next update will be soon. _

_Please review – I want to see if I can get 100 reviews._


	47. Chapter 47: Train Ride

_Disclaimer: I am not the author of Harry Potter_

_AN: Please read and review. Please help me think up a title for the sequel. Also, do you think Uncle Alphard should attend his niece's wedding?_

**Chapter Forty Seven: Train Ride**

Although it rained on Easter Sunday, the remainder of the holiday was great. The 'Easter Bunny' – at least that was what Robert had said – had laid a trail of clues around the house for each of us to follow, and at the end there was an Easter egg each. They had probably used a duplicating charm on them, but it was still nice for me to be included in the fun. After that we had gone to the church – a pretty, little muggle church near the house, with lots of flowers around it. Robert's family were as pureblood as mine, but had somehow acquired a liking for the muggle way of life.

The only other interesting thing that happened was near the end of the holiday, when an owl arrived carrying two contradictory letters. The first was a letter that said:

_Dear Regulus,_

_Please burn the other letter. I did not want to send it to you at all, but Mum made me - she said it was mean to leave you out. You are not invited to my party and never will be while you still hang around with muggles. If you want your toy Hippogriff back, James Potter has it._

_From Evan_

_PS. What on earth were you doing in Knockturn Alley last week?_

The second letter was a very elaborately decorated invitation to his twelfth Birthday party. I threw both of the letters in the open fire, not bothering to reply to either of them. How did he know I'd been in Knockturn Alley anyway? Both he and his brothers were far too young to be Death Eaters. The mention of the Hippogriff was also strange: I hadn't been able to find it on the last day of term, but when it had never left my trunk so it would have been impossible for James to have got hold of it. It was more likely that Evan had taken it, especially since I'd seen his brother do something suspicious with James and Remus's trunks – it was probably part of the Rosiers 'make Regulus and Sirius hate each other' plan.

After that, it was soon time to go back to Hogwarts. To get my stuff from home, Robert's Father did an 'accio' spell in the middle of the night. My trunk came zooming across the London night sky, with all of my books and clothing still in it; I hadn't really had the chance to unpack it in the two days I'd been at home. The toy still wasn't in it. We then made our way to the station to catch the 'Hogwarts Express'.

We were only at the outside entrance to the station when I spotted Sirius. He and his friend Remus were both carrying their trunks, while Remus's parents were carrying Sirius's broom and a collection of other random items that didn't fit in the trunks. I left my trunk with Robert's Mum and ran up to greet Sirius.

"Hi Siri. Did you have a good holiday," I said. "I tried to send you some chocolate, but Mother wouldn't let me."

Sirius glared at me and told me he did have a good holiday because he didn't have to spend it with his hateful family, which included me. He also said that he supposed I'd had a wonderful holiday with Mother and Father, which wasn't true at all.

"I missed you, Siri. It wasn't the same without you. I didn't even-" I started. I was going to say that I hadn't spent it at home, but Sirius then said I was lying, in not so nice phrasing and that I hadn't missed him at all. I would have argued back if I thought it was any use, but then James Potter arrived.

"Regulus, go away. I need to talk to James," said Sirius.

"But I'm your brother. You haven't seen me all holiday; can't you talk to me too?"

"No. You're not my brother anymore. Not since you stopped talking to me and got sorted into Slytherin," said Sirius.

I tried not to look hurt. "But you said we would always be brothers no matter what," I said. "I haven't stopped talking to you – you just don't listen to me. And I'm not going away because I want to talk to James too."

"Whatever would you want to do that for? I don't think Mother would be very happy to see you talking to a Gryffindor," said Sirius.

"Mother isn't here," I said. Then I turned to James. "Evan says you have my Hippogriff," I said. "I don't know how you could have got it, but have you?"

"Oh, so that thing's yours then? Here," said James, unlocking his trunk and getting it out. "Now before I give this back, I don't suppose you know where my invisibility cloak is do you?"

"Maybe Evan has it," I said. I didn't really have a clue about the cloak. I only knew it even existed because of when I did the polyjuice potion thing. I looked at James's facial expression and it was obvious that he didn't believe me. "Maybe his brother has it. He nicked your trunk after all."

"Maybe. Now can you please bog off back to your parents so we can talk," said Sirius. "Where are they anyway?"

"I told you there not here. Why don't you ever listen to me?"

"Because most of the time it's not worth my time listening to," said Sirius. He obviously wasn't in a very good mood so I stomped back over to Robert and his family to pick up the rest of my belongings. I didn't talk at all as we made our way towards the platform, not even when Robert asked me if I was okay. I hated it when Sirius was in a bad mood with me. It just wasn't fair. Why couldn't I just be James Potter? Sirius always listened to what James had to say, even if it was an absolute load of rubbish or a huge long list of everything that was wonderful about Evans (meaning Lily Evans and not Evan Rosier – there was almost nothing nice to say about Evan Rosier).

When we walked through the barrier, the first thing I noticed was the huge crowd of people and then all the steam and black smoky stuff coming out of the train. It was horrible and I ended up with a lung full of soot particles with made me cough and splutter as I felt my chest tightening and it was harder to breathe properly. I sat down on my trunk with my head n my hands and closed my eyes, waiting for it to all go away.

"Regulus, are you asthmatic?" asked Robert's Mum. I didn't know what asthmatic meant so I shook my head. "Are you sure? I can help if you are." I shook my head again. As far as I knew, it was just something that happened to me because I was weak and babyish – that was what Mother had said anyway. "Regulus, is this normal for you?" I nodded, because I couldn't answer her any other way. "Do you want me to get a healer for you?" she asked. I shook my head again because I didn't need a healer for something that happened all the time.

I got up slowly, still coughing. All the while, Robert's mum was telling me that I should just sit still for a while because I was wheezing and that it wasn't normal. However, the train was going to leave without me if I did what she wanted. Unfortunately I ended up falling over because I was concentrating so hard on breathing that I forgot to look down at the maze of suitcases and belongings on the floor. We ended up with a compromise of her carrying me onto the train and making sure I sat still away from all the smoke.

"What does asthmatic mean?" I asked Robert, when, satisfied that I was all right, his Mother had left the train.

"I don't know. I think it's a muggle disease," said Robert.

"Like flu?"

"Probably," said Robert. "Let's go and find everyone else." We searched the compartments and found one with Nicola and Steph in it. They were examining chocolate frog cards.

"Hi Rob, Reggie. I'm just showing Stephannie the joys of chocolate frogs. Can you believe she's never tried on before?" said Nicola. I could just about believe it. I still hadn't tried half the muggle sweets I'd seen at Steph's house. He mother had a whole cupboard full of sweets –a type I particularly liked the look of were called Jelly Beans and looked like Bertie Botts, except that they didn't have the disgusting flavours like earwax, chilli and blood in them.

"Can I have one please?" asked Robert.

"Sure. I've got millions of them. Dad accidentally won a lifetime's supply last month and to be honest he's getting pretty sick of them already." She threw several packets towards us as we sat down opposite her and Steph. "What the hell just happened to you anyway, Reg? You look really sick," she asked. Great, so I not only had to be embarrassed by collapsing on the platform, but actually looked awful too.

"He had a bad coughing fit," said Robert. "Mum says it might be something called asthma but she didn't tell us what it was. He also just had a shouting at from Sirius and James because James thinks he nicked an invisibility cloak."

"I really doubt you would steal something from James," said Steph. "You kind of idolise him. Asthma is a common respiratory disease, and my Mum thinks you might have it too, but thought you probably already knew that."

"Can we talk about something else now?" I said. I felt really embarrassed that everyone thought there was something wrong with me.

"Yeah. What about?"

I looked around for inspiration. "Um, Merlin maybe," I said, looking down at the said card in my hand. "What do you think Hogwarts was like in Merlin's time?" We talked for a bit about what the subjects would have been like. Perhaps Professor Binns had actually been alive at some point in time? We then talked about the possibility of there actually having once been a young Dumbledore, Merlin and Professor Binns – not all at the same time, of course. It was a weird conversation but at least they weren't all talking about me – I hated being discussed.

…..

_AN: Next chapter, they will all be back at Hogwarts. If you would like to know, I am also writing a fanfiction oneshot about what happened on the Death Eater raid. It is from Alecto's (one of the worst of the Death Eaters if you have read the last book) point of view and has a tiny bit of a love interest but not much. I think it will be called 'first time' or something like that as it is her first outing as a Death Eater. You will also find out what really happened to James's cloak and with the Rosier brothers because it isn't in this story, and that even the worst of people get scared sometimes. Following a pack of Death Eaters when you are thirteen is not normally a wise move._

_Please review._


	48. Chapter 48: Thestrals

_Disclaimer: I do not own 'Harry Potter' or any of the associated literature._

**Chapter Forty Eight: Thestrals**

When the Hogwarts Express stopped at Hogsmeade it was raining heavily. I hadn't really felt much like walking before the rain had started, but I certainly didn't fancy walking now that it had. For one thing, I didn't have a coat, and I still hadn't learnt how to do drying spells – I did not want to have to rely on Andromeda knowing and then have all the fuss caused by my catching of a cold. My cousin didn't need all the stress of looking after me either.

The four of us: Robert, Steph, Nicola and I, decided the best way to get to the castle would be to use the carriages. The only problem was the fact that out of the four of us, I was the only one that could see the creatures pulling the carriage. They were black, rather ghostly-looking creatures that mostly resembled winged horses. I could see why most people were scared of them, but they didn't look evil. I walked up to one of them and patted it on the head.

The thestral snorted but then nuzzled it's nose on my shoulder. I laughed and gave him (I think it was a 'he' anyway) a chocolate frog. He ate it in one gulp.

"Regulus, what are you doing? Where did that chocolate frog just go?" shouted Robert from inside the carriage. I realised I was getting wet and hurried inside the carriage.

"I was feeding the thestral," I said. When Robert gave me a funny look, I continued: "Thestrals are creatures that pull the carriages. You can only see them if you've seen someone die." I could see that my friends were itching to ask me who I'd seen die. I really didn't want to talk about it so I babbled on about the thestrals. "My cousin, Andromeda told me all about them. She studied them in Care Of Magical Creatures in fifth year, and wrote about them in a letter. I went and read all about them in the library at home. They're really fascinating creatures…" I talked about them for about ten minutes before Nicola told me to shut up because we were nearing the castle.

We jumped out of the carriage and ran as fast as possible towards the castle. Unfortunately that didn't really save us because when we got into the entrance hall, we were soaked through. I said goodbye to my friends as we made our way to our own House quarters - somehow I'd managed to get myself in a group of four people all from different houses – I reckoned we were probably the only such friendship group in the whole school! I quickly ran down to the dungeons where my trunk was waiting, dried myself and changed into a dry set of robes. For once I was glad that Mother had insisted I bought several sets of school robes.

I sat myself down on the chair in the commonroom that was nearest the fire with a sketch pad and pencil and started to draw the thestrals. I drew it so that it looked like it was flying over the Forbidden Forset, with its black, bat-like wings outstretched. I thought it looked really good and started to shade it in nicely.

"That's a rather bony, ugly Pegasus," commented Millicent, who had chosen that moment to stand over my shoulder and peer at the drawing.

"It's not a pegasus; it's a thestral!" I said.

"What's a thestral?" asked Millicent. I pointed at the picture. I was tempted to throw 'Fantasic Beasts and Where to Find Them' at her, but I didn't have it with me, and Grace wasn't intelligent enough to understand its contents.

"Aren't they supposed to be bad luck?" asked her friend Grace.

"No. Some people don't like them because you can only see them if you've seen someone die. They're not evil and they don't bring bad luck," I told her.

"Don't ask Regulus about bad luck. He sleeps with a death omen," commented Grace. I ignored her. Sirius II was not a grim; he was just a black dog. I seriously doubted that Hippogriffs were Death omens in anyone's book.

"Who did you see die?" asked Millicent. "You must have seen the things, because you were feeding them."

"No one I really know. I just witnessed a killing I wasn't supposed to see," I said. I didn't really want to mention the Death Eaters, and what I really wanted was to forget the whole thing, especially the fact that it had been Bella doing the killing. I also didn't want it spread around the school that my relatives were murderers. What if they decided to put Bellatrix in Azkaban? They might even start judging the four of us at Hogwarts because of what she had done. It wouldn't be fair on Cissy and Sirius and Andromeda, especially since Andromeda was going to have a baby soon.

"I won't grill you about it if you don't want to talk about it," said Millicent. "Come on, let's go to dinner before it's too cold. I heard the pudding will be extra good tonight." She grabbed hold of me and Grace and pulled us towards the exit. When we reached the Great Hall, I walked over to where Cissy was sitting and, to my surprise, the girls followed me.

"Hi Reggie. Did you have a good time with your friend?" she asked. I noticed she was sitting by he friends Thalia and Marcus, as well as Evan's third year brother. To my surprise, he looked about as depressed as if someone had nicked his brand new Nimbus broomstick, thrown it under the whomping willow and then fed him to a werewolf for good measure. He was pushing his food around his place and wasn't talking to anyone, including both of his brothers.

"Yeah, it was brilliant. We had an Easter egg hunt and everything! What about you?" I said.

"Oh, it was better than I thought. Mother and Father said they were very sorry that they hit me, and Mother gave me lots of hugs to make up for it. I got loads of Eater Eggs – there's even one for you from my Father, and another one from Uncle Alphard. I'll give them to you later."

"Wow! I hardly ever get them. Mother hates chocolate. Speaking of chocolate, did you know that Nicola Ravenclaw's family have won a lifetime's supply of chocolate frogs?"

"That's amazing! I wonder how long it'll take them to get all the cards," said Marcus.

"I don't know. She gave me some earlier though: I've got Merlin, Hufflepuff, and this guy who won the world record for fastest catching of the snitch in a quidditch match," I told him.

"Merlin's boring. I've got about ten of him already," said Cissy.

We spent the remainder of dinner discussing and swapping cards. The pudding turned out to be chocolate sponge and ice cream, which was really nice and not at all sickly. I ate all of it, and then Marcus, the four girls and I went off to the commonroom and to bed.

…..

_AN: The last few chapters were quite action packed so I decided to write a nice slow chapter where nothing major happened. I have written a one-shot which you may like to read about Death Eaters. Please review it and tell me what you think of the side plots in this story – have you spotted them? I do warn, however, that the torture curse is used on three different people in the one-shot story and the killing curse is used at least five times. It is by no means a light-hearted story._

_As for the sequel to this, I am still trying to name it, but have already made up several side plots/backstories to go with it. The story will start with Andromeda's wedding and end with Sirius leaving home, so will cover Regulus's second and third years at Hogwarts._

_Please review. _


	49. Chapter 49: Baby Names

_Disclaimer: I do not own 'Harry Potter' or any of the associated literature. _

_AN: This is in Lily's point of view. It is about a week later, and the day after a full moon. James and Sirius have been attempting animagus transformations, and James's may have gone a little bit wrong._

**Chapter Forty Nine: Baby Names**

When I first entered the Great Hall for breakfast, the first thing I noticed was James Potter, or rather, the enormous pair of antlers sticking out from beneath his messy, black hair. Since Sirius was laughing hysterically, I guessed it was probably him that had done it. James, however, was extremely red in the face from embarrassment and was trying his best not to look anyone in the eye.

I sat down next to Mary and Alice and tried not to look in their direction. Instead I glanced across at the Slytherin table where I spotted my friend Severus. He was sitting snickering and staring at James – why couldn't the two of them just get along? I blamed the stupid house rivalries. I decided to ignore both of them for the time being and started eating my toast and jam. That was until I was hit on the head with a paper aeroplane.

I supposed I wasn't really sitting that far away from James and Sirius, and it was actually quite far from Slytherin table. Still, whoever had thrown it didn't have very good aim because it was clearly meant for Sirius (it said 'To Sirius' on the side). Being nosy, I unfolded it and read the letter.

_Dear Siri,_

_I know you haven't been getting any of my letters recently and I just wanted to say sorry for any misunderstandings. I just wanted to tell you that I am OK with you being in Gryffindor and it wasn't me that took James's invisibility cloak. I know the two of you had nothing to do with stealing my Hippogriff._

_It was me who sent you that book in your first year. You seem to have used it for a prank on James (or is that the two of you attempting a transformation – you know it's illegal so don't do it). Anyway, I don't think it is a good idea to mess with magic like that – what if your best friend gets stuck like that forever. I sent you the other book to use as a prank._

_I spent a total of about two days at home during the holidays, and I spent the rest of it at Robert's house. I couldn't stay at home because Mother and Father found out about that letter to the Ministry. Mother was really angry at me gave me the same treatment she gave me at Bella's wedding. Then she threw a cutting curse at me when I tried to send you an Easter egg. It was Cissy's idea to run away. We accidentally ran into some Death Eaters and I was them kill a whole family – it was horrible. Rob's Dad rescued us._

_Just to clear things up, Robert is a HUFFLEPUFF and his Dad is an AUROR, and so he is not a Slytherin and is not a Death Eater. You accused him of both when we were playing in the snow at Christmas. It also may interest you that Steph is MUGGLEBORN and is a GRYFFINDOR and that I don't care about it._

_Anyway, I need to talk to you about something very important in private. I also need your help with something. Please meet me near the entrance to Ravenclaw tower at lunchtime. If you don't, the consequences will be entirely your own fault._

_Love From Reggie._

It was quite an odd letter. For one thing, it said meet by Ravenclaw tower, when I knew perfectly well that Sirius's 'despicable little brother' (as Sirius referred to him) was in Slytherin house, which was probably the reason why Sirius appeared to hate him so much. The other thing that was odd was that Sirius had told everyone that he hadn't had any communication at all from his brother, while the letter clearly stated otherwise. I finished reading it and wondered over to where Sirius and James were sitting. Their friend Peter was also sitting with them, but their other friend Remus was nowhere in sight.

"Sirius, this is for you," I said, holding the letter out to him. Sirius took one look at the words 'Siri' and 'Reggie', which I guessed were private nicknames, and ripped the letter to shreds. I thought it was a horrible thing to do because he hadn't even read it properly or taken note of where to meet his brother.

"Was that another one of those bigoted letters from your Mother?" asked James.

"No, it was from Regulus. I didn't read it – probably something about why I didn't come home at Easter. As if he actually wanted me there. He doesn't like me any more than I like him, and he knows how much I hate Mother," said Sirius.

"If you had bothered to read the letter you would have noticed that he didn't even spend much of the holidays with your Mother!" I shouted. I was seething. How could he just assume things like that?

"Lily shut up! You don't know anything about my life so keep your nose out of it!" yelled Sirius.

"Evans, Sirius has been getting abusive letters from his family for nearly three years. How was he to know it wasn't just the same?" said James. He seemed calmer than Sirius was but he was still angry.

"I just thought you could have read it first!"

"And what were you doing reading my letters anyway?" shouted Sirius. I had no answer to that.

…..

Later that day, I had just finished lunch and was thinking about the events at Breakfast. I decided to find out what Regulus really wanted to talk to Sirius about so I started to make my way towards the tower. I stopped when I heard voices.

"He isn't coming is he?" said someone. It sounded like a first year so I guessed it was Regulus. I peered around the corner, keeping out of sight, and saw a small boy, who looked like a much younger, smaller, skinnier version of Sirius sitting next to a much older girl. "He never comes."

The girl looked tired, as if she hadn't slept properly in several weeks and looked like an older, dark-haired version of Narcissa Black in the year below me. She looked like she'd been crying. "I really need to talk to him though; he never listens anymore. We have to tell him before…"

"I know. He needs to know before Mother does," said Regulus. He sounded sad and rejected. I watched as the two of them comforted one another and talked in hushed tones. I didn't hear much until Regulus suddenly exclaimed: "You can't call her that! She'll hate it!"

"I think Nymphadora is a lovely name," said the girl. It was either his sister or his cousin. Sirius had never mentioned having a sister so I presumed she was his cousin – most likely Narcissa's older sister.

"Can't you call her something normal like, um, Lucy or Rose or Lily? There's a nice girl in Sirius's class called Lily. It's a perfectly respectable muggle name and if you send her to school with muggles she won't get teased," said Regulus. Last time I'd talked to Regulus it had seemed he hated me because I was friends with Severus, who had insulted Sirius. Then again, from what Sirius had said, it all seemed very unlikely.

"I'm not naming my child after a kid in third year. 'Rose' sounds far too much like 'Rosier' and 'Lucy sounds like 'Lucius'. They're much too plain anyway," said the girl.

"Okay. What about Selene, or Aphrodite, or Demeter, or Athena." He listed a pile of Greek goddesses, Roman goddesses and then Egyptian ones.

"I think I'll stick with my original choice. I am not naming my daughter after Becky's cats or Uncle's owl," she said.

"Ok, but it'll be your problem when she hates it," said Regulus.

They carried on arguing and I slipped away. It appeared as if Sirius's 'cousin' was having a baby daughter and was sticking with the first name she thought of. I personally thought it was a pretty name. I decided to try and get Sirius to talk to them. I didn't even know if Sirius knew about this 'baby' that was coming.

…..

_AN: Thanks for reading. I didn't get any reviews for my last chapter so please review this one. Please also read my one-shot if you haven't already. I was also wondering what you thought of my own characters - are they all 'Mary Sue'. I hope not because I tried to make them as original as I could. I have a new poll up, so you can vote which ones you like._


	50. Chapter 50: Exams

_Disclaimer: I did not write 'Harry Potter'._

**Chapter Fifty: Exams**

"Sirius! I need to talk to you!" shouted my cousin, who was busy chasing Sirius around the courtyard. It was fairly pointless because Sirius was about as likely to sit down and listen to her as a blast-ended skrewt was - at least the skrewt would be easier to catch. As it was, Andromeda soon tired of running and made Ted chase after him instead. He didn't have much luck either.

I turned back to my studying. We were in the middle of exam week, so there was a still a lot of revision to do. I'd planned my revision six weeks in advance, however, so I was just doing a quick review of my charms book before the exam after lunch. Marcus had said it was stupid to study so much and that they were only first year exams. When I looked in his bag I saw he'd planned his revision timetable ten weeks in advance so he wasn't really one to talk.

Right now, I was hanging upside down from a tree in the corner of the courtyard. I'd used the 'Wingardium Leviosa' charm to hang my book in the air and it was a much more comfortable and less crowded place to revise than inside the library. I was currently looking up severing charms and warming spells. It would have been a lot more useful if they'd taught us the warming spells in December when it was freezing cold instead of last week when it was stifling hot.

"How did I know I'd find you studying?" asked Robert.

I looked down to see Steph and Robert standing beneath me. Robert was carrying what looked like a picnic basket and Steph was carrying a large jug of what looked like bubbly water. I momentarily lost concentration and the textbook fell with a clunk onto Robert's head. "Sorry," I said.

"We're going to eat lunch by the lake today so we can all sit together. Do you want to come?" asked Steph. I said yes and swung down from the tree. The three of us walked off towards our usual spot between the lake and Hagrid's Hut. On the way we passed Rabastan and Alecto telling Lucius Malfoy that they wanted to show him really interesting and funny. Without doubt it involved hurting someone, especially as they seemed to be carrying the rather limp form of a teenage boy of around Sirius's size with them. It definitely wasn't Sirius though, unless he'd had an 'accident' with bleach and hair dye – the hair was considerably lighter than James's or Sirius's and it didn't look like Remus's either. I had an idea of who it might be, but I had no idea what the three of them would want with him for entertainment purposes.

"Ignore them," said Robert, who had noticed I was seething. "They're too old to pick a fight with and by the time you've got a teacher they'll have done it and destroyed the evidence." He was right. It would have taken at least ten minutes for us to have gone and fetched a teacher, and I couldn't hope to win a duel against seventh years – 'Protego', which was a very difficult spell to get right, and dodging wouldn't be enough against unforgivable and NEWT level curses.

The four of them disappeared into the forbidden forest as we set out our picnic. I really didn't like it – I knew for a fact that Rabastan had successfully passed his apparition test and I suspected that Alecto could apparate too. I did the only sensible thing I could think of and ran up to Hagrid's hut. Robert ran after me. As I knocked on the door, I suddenly remembered that I'd never really spoken to Hagrid before. He was about twice as tall as me and about five times as broad. I was a little taken aback when he opened the door to us and asked what we wanted. I told him some older students had taken a second of third year into the forbidden forest and he strolled off to look for them.

The two of us ran back to our picnic basket where Steph had begun to unwrap shiny silver packages of sandwiches. She handed me one with tuna and lettuce in it, and gave a cheese-filled one to Robert.

"The house elves in the kitchen made these for us specially. They seemed delighted to see us – look how much food we've got!" said Steph. I looked inside the basket and saw enough foil-wrapped sandwiches for six people, a whole Victoria Sponge, ten pumpkin pasties, a dozen home-baked biscuits and what looked like a trifle in the bottom.

"Wow! What are we going to do with all this?" I asked.

"Eat it, obviously," said Robert. He'd finished his first sandwich and had taken out a second one. I nibbled the end of mine. It was nice so I ate the rest of it and took out a second one. This one had ham, cheese, tomato, cucumber and lettuce in it, making it a very thick sandwich – it was delicious.

It was as I was halfway through the second sandwich that we were interrupted by a loud, high-pitched scream. It sounded like Cissy, except that judging by the distance, it was quite a lot louder than any cry I'd heard from her. I paused mid bite and glanced in the direction of the forest where the noise had come from – I couldn't see anyone in there at all, though, because it was too dark. We stared out at the dark woods until ten minutes the later, the screaming stopped and three figures came running out of the forest. A moment later, Hagrid came out holding a body. They looked almost dead but I could just about tell they weren't because they were whimpering into Hagrid's enormous chest.

"Come on, let's go to our exam," said Steph. I had one last glance at Hagrid, who was hurrying towards the hospital wing, and set off towards the castle. Robert buried the picnic basket in the entrance to the tunnel under the whomping willow – you had to touch the knot on it to stop it from whomping. The only people I'd seen use the tunnel were Sirius and his friends and it didn't really matter if they found it.

I thought the exam went okay. The first part was a question paper that had twenty five short answer questions about charms that we'd learnt, and the second part was an essay on the back of the sheet. The questions were really easy and the answers to them were all in our regular charms textbook – all the extra reading I had done wasn't needed at all. During this, we were called up one at a time to perform a select few spells. I finished early so I watched the others go up – Millicent got flustered and couldn't get any of the spells right, while Robert accidentally levitated the Professor instead of the feather he was supposed to be levitating. Steph did everything perfectly, as did Becky (almost), Mulciber managed to blow the table up, and Grace managed to faint.

When it was my turn I did all the spells that I had been taught correctly. Professor Flitwick then asked me if I knew any other spells that he could give me extra credit for. I did 'aquamenti' and he said it was brilliant. I was sure I'd done enough to pass, and if I was lucky I would get and 'outstanding' and Mother and Father wouldn't be so angry with me.

…..

_Thank you to everyone who has been reading this story. This is the penultimate chapter and in the next one something exciting, but not dangerous, happens. I hope to end this story on a happy note, but leave everyone wanting more. By the way, all small details in the story come into it later, just like in the 'Harry Potter' books where people/things mentioned in passing become part of the plot. In some cases, like the Rosier side plot (more obvious in the next book), I didn't actually plan for them to become important, but they are - the same with Sarah from my other story, and Mulciber's tendency to blow things up. The 'marauder' side plot is entirely in cannon with the books._

_I will not tell you which kid was taken into the forest. From the description it could be a second, third or fourth year - all of these could be about Sirius's height. The only other thing is that they do not have black hair and that they are not Remus Lupin. Remus happened to have been showing James and Sirius the shrieking shack when Regulus saw them using the passageway._

_Also, do you think the Potters should be invited to Andromeda's wedding. It isn't really very important but I thought it might add an interesting twist to the story. The only 'Black' attending other than the bride is Regulus - Sirius is unable to make an excuse to go to it._

_Please review and read the sequel when it comes out. I also have a poll up about my characters._


	51. Chapter 51: Baby Girl

_Disclaimer: I don't own 'Harry Potter' or any of the other characters in the books. None of the characters in this chapter are mine._

_AN: This is the final chapter. The sequel is coming soon. This is set in July, after the school has broken up for the summer. For those who haven't studied Geography, cities are warmer than the countryside because of the urban-heat island effect._

**Chapter Fifty One: Baby Girl**

I was bored and nervous. I was particularly bored because the book I had chosen to take with me wasn't actually what I had thought it was. I had picked up the only 'magical creatures' book in our library that I had never read before, only to discover that the book inside the cover was not at all to do with magical creatures – not even Dark Ones. I blamed Bella. Inside, 'Guide to the Most Darkest Creatures', which I had expected to be about Dementors and Kelpies and stuff, was a book containing lots of absolutely hideous sounding rituals.

The first one I glanced at was a potion called a 'regeneration potion'. It looked horrible and included things like 'bone of the father, unknowingly given' and 'flesh of the servant, willingly sacrificed'. I hoped I would never need to use it. There was also another ritual involving a virgin sacrifice (I wasn't sure what it was but it didn't sound very nice), and ashes from the dead body. The entire process looked disgusting so I decided not to read it anymore; I slammed it down onto the chair beside me.

I stared out of the window. We were at St Mungo's hospital, so it was charmed to show varying weather – it was obviously charmed because it appeared to be snowing and it never snowed in London, in July. I was in a waiting room because Andromeda was having her baby and I wasn't allowed in to see her. I had to wait for what seemed like forever until I was finally allowed in.

Andromeda looked tired and wet, and she held a tiny little baby wrapped in pink blankets. The child's hair was almost the exact same colour as Ted's was, and she had big blue eyes – most babies are born with blue eyes. She was beautiful. I looked at Andromeda and she invited me to sit on the end of the bed, next to Ted.

"What's she called?" I asked.

"Nymphadora," she said, handing me the baby, which I then cradled gently in my arms. She was so tiny, she could only just wrap her hand around my little finger. I watched in surprise as the baby's hair changed colour. It was now black like mine was, and I'm sure her eyes had changed slightly to look more like mine.

"We think she's a metamorphagus," said Ted, as if that explained everything. It didn't.

"What does that mean?" I asked. I'd never even heard of the word 'metamorhpagus' before, and for someone who read as much as I did, that was quite amazing.

"It means she can change her appearance at will. When she is older she will have a lot more control over it, but for now she just changes to look like whoever is holding her," said my cousin. She went on to explain how rare they were. I was just pleased that the baby liked me enough to want to look like me.

"Wow, that's amazing. I bet it would be really useful if she wanted to be an Auror or a spy or something!" I said.

"Hmm. I don't think she'll be doing any of that quite yet, though," said Andromeda. I nodded in agreement.

"She could be one day, though," I said.

…..

Later on, Andromeda and Ted went off to the new house that they'd bought together, while I walked home. When I got there, everything was normal until after dinner, when me, Sirius, Mother and Father went into the drawing room…

On the Family Tree, there was a little golden line attached to Andromeda's name, leading to the name 'Ted Tonks', and there was a little line coming down that said the baby's name on it – the tapestry had updated itself. Sirius was staring at it with his eyes wide and his mouth open - he knew from Hogwarts that Ted wasn't pureblood and wasn't from a 'respectable' house. It was quite funny that he was so shocked. Maybe if he'd listened when we tried to tell him, he wouldn't be.

Mother, of course, was furious. All she new about Ted was that he was muggle born, so he was off limits to anyone in the Black Family. She shouted for ages, and then called our Aunt and Uncle and Cissy round. Then there was more shouting. Cissy burst into tears because her sister had 'abandoned' her, and Sirius thought the whole thing was hilariously funny. I was just glad that Andromeda had got away before Mother found out that she'd had a halfblood child. At least she didn't know I'd helped her!

At the end of it all, there was a huge burn mark on the tapestry and a very distraught Cissy and me.

…..

_AN: Thanks to everyone who has been reading and reviewing this story, especially to 'HP Fann 7' and 'BlackWolf2013' for reviewing almost every chapter. I kept this short, as I thought it would be better that way. I have spent a long time packing, and I will now be heading off to University to do my degree in Biology – in the UK it takes four years to get a masters degree, and then I can go out into the world – eek. Anyway, the sequel to this will be up soon, and I hope you all enjoyed this story._

_Please review._


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